GIFT   OF     . 
MICHAEL  REESE 


hm 


h'// 


I 


HYPNOTISM 

IN   ME-NTAL.AND, 
MORAL   CULTURE 

BY 

JOHN  DUNCAN  QUACKENBOS 

FELLOW  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  MEDICINE 
MEMBER  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  ACADEMY  OF  SCIENCES 
FELLOW  OF  THE  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  MEDICAL  SOCIETY 
MEMBER  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  FOR  THE 
ADVANCEMENT"  OF  SCIENCE 


■   UNIVERSITT  ' 


I  90  I 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS 
NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 


03 


EDUC. 

PsycH. 

UBRASr 


Copyright,  1900,  by  John  Duncan  Quacjcknbos 

ylU  rights  reseneci 


PREFACE 

This  volume  is  not  issued  in  illustration 
or  in  defence  of  the  therapeutic  efficiency  of 
hypnotism — of  the  value  of  induced  som- 
nambulism in  the  treatment  of  physical  dis- 
ease. Interesting  as  a  review  of  the  history 
of  post-hypnotic  suggestion  may  be  regarding 
its  adaptation  to  the  treatment  of  functional 
disorders  of  digestion,  absorption,  and  circu- 
lation; of  chronic  constipation,  sea-sickness, 
and  eczema;  of  nervous  conditions  repre- 
sented by  hysteria,  hystero-epilepsy,  chorea, 
occupation  neuroses^  excessive  perspiration, 
intractable  insomnia,  and  especially  that 
malady  so  peculiarly  American  in  its  dis- 
tribution,  neurasthenia   or   nervous   cxliaus- 


82994 


Preface 

tion,  the  flying  signal  of  the  nerve  storm  of 
our  fashionable  and  business  life;  even  of 
diseases  characterized  by  severe  pain,  like 
sciatica,  angina,  locomotor  ataxia,  tubercu- 
losis, and  carcinoma — all  which  have  been 
substantially  relieved,  and  some  permanent- 
ly cured,  by  reputable  hypno-scientists  both 
in  this  country  and  abroad — the  author  is 
under  the  necessitv  of  confinins;  himself 
largely  to  a  consideration  of  the  importance 
of  suggestive  treatment  in  moral  obliquity, 
and  in  the  development  and  exaltation  of 
mind  power.  With  the  subject  thus  narrow- 
ed to  the  psychic  field,  a  single  direction 
will  be  followed  in  its  discussion,  viz.,  that 
of  personal  experience  in  this  field.  ]^o 
claim  to  originality  is  advanced  beyond  the 
thought  that  post-hypnotic  suggestion  may 
with  great  advantage  be  made  supplemen- 
tary to  the  religious  training  of  degenerate 
or  vicious  children,  and  that  suggestibility 


Preface 

mav  be  extensively  utilized  as  a  contributory 
factor  to  moral  regeneration  in  schools,  re- 
formatories, and  prisons.  The  experiments 
have  been  made  independently  of  what  others 
are  doing,  and  in  premeditated  ignorance  of 
recent  works  on  hypnotism.  The  conclu- 
sions reached  are  therefore  unconnected  with 
those  of  other  investigators. 

When  the  thought  occurred  to  the  author 
during  the  winter  of  1898-99  to  test  the 
availability  of  hypnotic  suggestion  as  a 
means  of  removing  criminal  impulses  and 
substituting  conscience  -  sensitiveness  for 
moral  anaesthesia  among  young  criminals 
and  castaways,  he  was  convinced  that  the 
results  of  his  invesigations  w^ould  possess 
deep  interest  for  the  men  and  women  of  his 
profession,  and  he  purposed  publishing  them, 
together  with  his  conclusions,  in  the  form  of 
a  medical  monograph.  But  he  was  wholly 
unprepared  for  the  sensation  that  has  been 
vii 


Preface 

excited  throughout  this  country  and  in  Eu- 
rope bv  the  premature  birth  of  his  report  in 
the  columns  of  the  daily  press.  The  demand 
for  full  and  authentic  information  regarding 
hypnotic  suggestion,  which  has  suddenly  be- 
come appreciated  as  a  great  moralizing  power 
at  its  true  worth  and  with  an  intelligent 
reference  to  the  vride  range  of  its  applica- 
tions, explains  the  appearance  of  the  present 
volume. 

The  position  therein  taken  in  regard  to  the 
constructive  treatment  is  high,  but  tenable; 
nor  is  it  in  the  slightest  degree  at  variance 
with  the  purest  Christian  belief  and  practice. 
There  is  no  mystery  about  the  procedures, 
nothing  uncanny  or  occult  in  them.  Xo 
supernatural  gift  is  implied ;  no  theory  of 
"  a  magnetic  influence.''  The  results  reach- 
ed must  be  gratifying  to  all  who  are  working 
or  wishing  for  the  intellectual,  ethical,  and 
spiritual  elevation  of  humanity. 
viii 


Preface 

In  yielding  to  the  requests  of  many  friends 
of  his  work,  by  consenting  to  publish  in  a 
readable  manual  the  results  of  his  experi- 
ments, together  with  his  ])ersonal  conception 
as  derived  therefroin  of  the  availability  of 
hypnotism  for  the  development  of  mind  and 
for  the  cure  of  crime,  the  author  of  this  vol- 
ume is  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  to  extend 
a  knowledge  of  suggestion,  as  a  philanthropic 
instrumentality,  among  higii-miiidcd  Ameri- 
can men  and  women. 

J.  T).  Q. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

What  is  Hypnosis,  and  How  is  it  Induced  ?  3 

auto-suggestion 33 

Auto  -  Suggestion  as  the  Modus  Curandi  of 

Christian    and    Mental    Science  ....  51 

Auto-Suggestion  and  Faith 65 

Moral  Reform  Effected  by  Hypnotism  in 
Contrast  with  Conversion  Involving  Mor- 
al Reform.    The  Ethical  Victory     ...  73 

Suggestion  and  Responsibility 83 

Moral  Use  of  Hypnotism.    Suggestion  in  the 

Treatment  of  the  Cigarette  Habit  ...  97 

Dipsomania,  Opsomania,  ]\Iorphinomania    .     .  115 

Kleptomania  and  Habitual  Falsehood     .     .  131 

DiSEQUILIBRATION,      OR      MeNTAL     UNBALANCE  : 

Moral  Anesthesia 149 

Hypnotic  Suggestion__in  the  Treatment  of 

Speech  Defects 169 

xi 


Contents 


PA 


Imperative  Ideas,  Delusions,  Melancholia, 
Insanity,  and  Loss  of  Memory  as  Condi- 
tions Amenable  to  Hypnotic  Treatment  .    It 

Educational  Use  of  Hypnotic  Suggestion. 
Its  Value  in  the  TrainkxG  of  Erratic, 
Backward,  and  Unmanageable  Children  .    2a 

Hypnotic  Suggestion  in  the  Inspiration  of 
Writers,  and  of  Men  and  Women  of  the 
Stage 2S 

Hypnotic  Suggestion  in  the  Development  of 
Voice  and  of  Musical  Talent 24 

Compulsory  Hypnotism 25 

Conclusions  Reached 26 

Limitations  of  Hypnotism 28 


whj^t  is  hypnosis,  and 
how  is  it  induced? 


I 


WHAT    IS    HYPNOSIS,    AND 
HOW  IS    IT   INDUCED? 

HYP^N'OSIS,  or  hypnotic  sleep,  implies  a 
mind  condition  in  which  the  mental 
action  and  the  will  -  power  of  a  sensitive 
subject  are  imder  the  control  of  an  oper- 
ator who  has  induced  the  state.  It  is  charac- 
terized by  insensibility  to  extraneous  sounds 
or  retinal  images,  and  to  ordinary  impres- 
sions of  sense  organs;  but  by  quickened  per- 
ception of  sensations  and  thought-forms  that 
are  pictured  by  the  hypnotist. 

The  phenomena  of  hypnotism  are  scientifi- 
cally explicable  on  the  supposition  of  a 
double  self  or  duplex  personality,  each  self 
having  a  distinct  state  of  consciousness.  One 
of  these  states  is  called  the  primary  conscious- 
3 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

ness,  and  for  want  of  a  better  definition  it 
may  be  explained  as  the  self-luminousness  of 
the  objective  mind,  the  inner  light  in  which 
all  the  actions  of  the  waking  mind  are  made 
visible  to  that  mind.  The  other,  called  the 
secondary  consciousness,  holds  those  mental 
procedures  of  which,  objectively,  we  know 
nothing — all  automatic  actions.  Each  hu- 
man being  is  thus  an  individual  with  two  dis- 
tinct phases  of  existence,  a  combination  of 
two  personalities  w^hich  do  not  shade  into 
each  other — the  personality  by  which  he  is 
known  to  his  associates,  which  takes  cog- 
nizance of  the  outside  world  and  consciously 
carries  on  the  ordinary  business  of  life ;  and 
a  higher,  more  subtle  personality,  which 
science  has  demonstrated  to  be  capable  of 
acting  independently  of  a  physical  environ- 
ment, which,  as  the  image  of  God,  intuitively 
apprehends,  and  which  the  writer  believes  will 
assume  relief  after  death  as  the  essence  of  the 
4 


What  is   Hypnosis? 

pneuma  or  soul."^  The  astonishing  commimi- 
cations  of  entranced  mediums  regarding 
events  actually  occurring  in  remote  parts  of 
the  world  at  the  very  moment  of  their  reve- 
lations are  comprehensible  only  on  the  theory 
of  supranormal  perceptive  powers  possessed 
by  subliminal  selfs  acting  at  a  distance  from 
their  physical  bodies  (a  rational  explanation 
of  clairvoyance  and  clairaudience),  or  of  au- 
tomatic communications  between  the  sublimi- 
nal selfs  of  such  unconscious  mediums  and 
outside  personalities  not  human,  who  are 
cognizant  of  the  events  described,  and  are  in- 
dependent of  time  and  space  limitations. 

Through  hypnotization  this  subliminal 
or  submerged  self,  which  spontaneously  as- 
serts itself  in  the  natural  somnambulistic 
state,  is  brought  into  active  control.     It  has 

*  And  herein  is  to  be  found  a  scientific  demon- 
stration of  immortality.  The  objective  self  repre- 
sents spirit  entangled  with  a  physical  body;  the  sub- 
jective self,  pure  pneuma,  independent  of  brain  cells. 

5 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

long  been  known  that  a  human  being  can  be 
thrown  into  an  artificial  sleep  during  which 
he  sustains  such  a  relation  to  an  operator 
who  has  induced  it,  that  he  is  sensitive  only 
to  what  the  operator  tells  him  he  is  sensitive 
to,  and  is  wholly  subject,  so  far  as  his  mental 
operations  and  physical  actions  are  concern- 
ed, to  the  volition  of  his  hypnotist.  A  hypno- 
tized person  sees,  hears,  tastes,  smells,  and 
feels  what  the  operator  says  that  he  sees, 
hears,  tastes,  smells,  and  feels — and  nothing 
else.  For  the  time  being,  his  individuality 
is  surrendered  to  the  person  who  has  hypno- 
tized him.  As  a  rule,  he  gives  heed  to  the 
voice  of  lio"  other  person,  and  none  but  his 
hypnotizer  can  awaken  him.  His  condition 
is  one  of  passive  obedience,  the  primary  or 
objective  consciousness  being  entirely  in 
abeyance,  and  the  subjective  or  subliminal 
self  maintaining  control  of  the  intellectual 
field.  His  ears  now  become  avenues  of  sug- 
6 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

gestion;  and  thoughts  intruded  by  precise 
emphatic  declaration  upon  the  subliminal 
consciousness  promptly  and  irrevocably  mod- 
ify character.  Directions  given  are  carried 
out  in  the  minutest  detail;  and  all  elevated 
suggestions,  though  involving  attitudes  and 
actions  conspicuously  at  variance  with  the 
patient's  dominant  ideas  and  daily  routine, 
are  accepted  without  criticism  and  fulfilled 
at  the  time  and  after  waking.  The  subject 
believes  and  at  last  does  all  that  he  is  told. 
He  is  constrained  after  waking  to  obey  the 
impulses  of  his  own  superior  self.  In  per- 
forming suggested  acts,  however,  he  has,  only 
to  a  degree  determined  by  the  wish  and  skill 
of  the  operator,  become  an  automaton. 

The  superiority  of  hypnotism  as  an  in- 
strumentality for  exalting  human  character 
over  the  conventional  methods  of  instructing, 
reforming,  and  persuading  to  meritorious 
action,  is  thus  as  unique  as  it  is  startling. 
7 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

The  moralist  and  preacher  address  the  self 
that  is  not  in  control,  the  flesh-entangled^ 
hesitating,  easily  tempted  and  entrapped  ob- 
jective self;  hence  their  appeals  are  so  often 
futile.  The  suggestionist  invokes  the  better 
subliminal  self,  invests  it  with  control,  and 
seldom  fails  to  effect  the  desired  purpose. 
Discriminating  hypnotic  suggestion  is  thus 
a  more  powerful  agent  than  objective  relig- 
ious exhortation  for  the  moral  reformation 
of  the  young  and  thoughtless. 

Human  beings  are  hypnotizable  by  other 
human  beings,  between  whom  and  themselves 
exists  a  peculiar  sympathy  or  harmonious  re- 
lationship known  as  rapport.  I  have  reach- 
ed the  conclusion  that  every  person  of  ordi- 
nary intellectual  capacity  can  hypnotize  some 
other  persons,  and  that  the  great  mass  of  men 
are  hypnotizable.  Various  methods  of  in- 
ducing  hypnosis   are   practised,    all   having 

in  view  the  fixation  of  the  attention  upon 
8 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

some  monotonous  stimulus  of  the  eye  or  ear, 
as  sedative  music,  or  a  bright  object  like  the 
nickel-plated  point-protector  of  a  lead-pen- 
cil, a  transparent  crystal,  a  stud  in  the  shirt- 
bosom,  or  the  eyes  of  the  operator.*  In  cer- 
tain instances  such  a  procedure  may  be  profit- 
ably supplemented  by  light  passes,  or  by 
holding  firmly  the  hand  of  the  patient,  by 
pressing  it  against  the  forehead  of  the  oper- 
ator, or  by  contact  of  foreheads,  while  the 
whole  force  of  one's  personality  is  concen- 
trated in  an  effort  to  overcome  any  automatic 
resistance  to  hypnotization. 

The  technic  adopted  by  me  is  as  follows: 
After  talking  sympathetically  with  the  sub- 

*  Perfumes  also  have  hypnotic  power;  the  odor  of 
May  blossoms,  of  new -won  hay,  of  balm  of  Gilead 
firs,  unquestionably  contributes  to  the  induction  of 
mental  placidness  and  so  to  mental  surrender.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  certain  colors,  although  the  col- 
ors that  possess  hypnotic  influence  vary  with  the  per- 
sonality impressed.  Pinks  of  low  chroma  seem  to 
have  the  widest  range  of  applicability. 

9 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

ject,  sometimes  for  an  hour  or  two,  in  regard 
to  the  failing  which  he  wishes  removed,  thor- 
oughly acquainting  myself  with  his  dominant 
propensities  or  controlling  thoughts,  and, 
above  all,  securing  his  confidence,  I  ask  him 
to  assume  a  comfortable  reclining  position  on 
a  lounge,  and  then,  while  continuing  a  sooth- 
ing conversation,  I  manage  in  a  way  deter- 
mined by  the  circumstances  of  the  case  to 
concentrate  his  attention  upon  a  suspended 
diamond  or  on  a  carnelian  seal  set  in  an  old- 
fashioned  gold  pencil  which  I  happened  upon 
among  my  heirlooms.  The  Cambay  stone  is 
held  in  such  a  position  within  the  natural 
focus  of  the  eyes  as  to  compel  an  exaggerated 
convergence  of  the  axes  of  the  balls,  coupled 
with  an  upward  gaze.  Such  unusual  exercise 
of  the  ocular  muscles  soon  tires  them  out ;  the 
retinal  areas  involved  are  rapidly  fatigued 
by  the  deep  redness  and  brilliancy  of  the 
carnelian;   and   simultaneously   the   patient 

lO 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

is  urged  to  thinh  of  nothing,  to  renounce  the 
very  intention  of  renouncing  mental  effort, 
and  to  give  himself  up  to  me  with  perfect 
confidence  in  the  purity  of  my  motives  and 
in  my  ability  to  remove  or  modify  his  moral 
or  mental  disorder.  Under  these  conditions 
the  eyeballs  soon  become  fixed,  a  vacant  stare 
replaces  the  usual  intelligent  look,  and  the 
eyelids  begin  to  close  and  reopen  spasmodi- 
cally.* At  this  stage  the  suggestion  is  given 
that  refreshing  sleep  is  about  to  ensue;  and 
in  a  few  moments  a  prolonged  breath  is  tak- 
en, the  lids  close  with  a  slow,  regular  move- 
ment, deep  inspirations  follow,  and  I  know 
that  I  have  been  given  possession  of  that  soul 

*  Some  patients  describe  a  sensation  of  weight  on 
the  eyelids.  Others  speak  of  a  vapor  that  seems  to 
come  between  them  and  the  object  their  gaze  is 
fixed  upon,  accompanied  with  a  peculiar  tingling  in 
the  arms  and  lower  limbs,  or  with  a  feeling  as  if 
nervous  currents  of  gentle  and  sustained  flow  were 
coursing  through  the  body,  inducing  a  physical  and 
mental  calm  which  culminates  in  unconsciousness. 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

for  such  a  time  as  I  may  prescribe,  to  do  with 
it  what  I  will. 

In  cases  so  difficult  that  ordinary  methods 
of  hypnotization  prove  of  no  avail,  and  in 
mild  forms  of  insanity,  the  author  has  adopt- 
ed a  more  potent  method  of  securing  the  de- 
sired influence.  The  patient  is  placed  in  a 
high-backed  chair,  vis-a-vis  to  the  operator, 
each  of  his  hands  in  one  of  the  hypnotist's, 
and  their  knees  and  feet  in  contact.  He  is 
then  stared  into  a  state  of  suggestible  sleep, 
which  usually  supervenes  in  from  ten  to  fif- 
teen minutes.  The  ordeal  is  extremely  trying 
to  the  operator,  who  looks  into  the  subject's 
soul  from  eyes  "  as  unwinking  as  the  lidless 
orbs  of  the  Genius  of  Destruction."  The 
mesmerizee  may  occasionally  glance  aside, 
but  his  eyes,  as  if  drawn  by  some  irresistible 
charm,  revert  to  those  of  the  hypnotist.  A 
peculiar  expression  of  surrender  (once  seen, 
never   forgotten)  pervades   his   countenance, 

12 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

deep  inspirations  begin,  tlie  eyes  close  heavily 
and  become  sealed,  and  tbe  head  retains  the 
position  in  which  it  may  be  placed  for  com- 
fort or  convenience.  In  the  case  of  subjects 
who  at  once  become  cataleptic  and  only  par- 
tially lethargic,  the  operator  may  secure  suc- 
cess by  redoubling  his  efforts  to  concentrate 
his  whole  mind  and  force  the  thought  of  sleep 
upon  the  personality  in  rapport,  with  hands 
placed  firmly  on  the  chest  of  the  subject  and 
with  gaze  unrelaxed.  An  hypnotic  may  see 
plainly  through  closed  lids: 

"Strange  state  of  being  (for  'tis  still  to  be), 
Senseless  to  feel,  and  with  sealed  eyes  to  see." 

— Byron. 

/  Hypnotization  by  revolving  mirrors  or 
other  machinery,  which  may  be  effected  even 
while  the  operator  is  not  present,  is  to  be  con- 
demned for  all  higher  work.  There  must 
be  thrown  into  the  procedure  as  much  as 
possible  of  the  overmastering  personality  of 
13 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

the  suggestionist,  who  is  assumed  always  to 
be  pre-eminently  stronger  than  the  subject  in 
the  particular  line  of  the  aid  asked.  Ma- 
chine hypnotism  succeeds  in  about  thirty 
per  cent,  of  the  cases  attempted;  whereas 
eighty  to  ninety  per  cent,  yield  to  the  wisely 
directed  personal  energy  of  a  properly  quali- 
fied fellow-being.  The  real  work  is  accom- 
plished through  the  action  of  mind  on  mind. 
The  responsibility  of  the  moments  that  fol- 
low the  induction  of  hypnosis  is  awful  be- 
yond power  of  language  to  picture.  The 
operator  stands  in  a  closer  relation  to  the 
mind  in  rapport  than  father  or  mother,  teach- 
er or  preacher,  husband  or  wife  can  ever  at- 
tain; and  it  becomes  his  Christian  manhood 
to  act  only  as  the  vicegerent  of  the  Almighty 
in  the  use  he  makes  of  this  great  power  and 
sacred  opportunity.  Would  he  dare  to 
smutch  a  soul  so  completely  at  his  mercy 
with  a  single  untoward  thought?  Would 
14 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

he  venture  to  trifle  with  what  is  holy  in  that 
character?  Would  he  presume,  unprepared 
and  unequipped,  to  strike  the  sweet  bells  of 
that  intellect  "  all  jangled  out  of  tune  " — he 
who  may  have  in  five  brief  moments  changed 
the  dazed  and  distraught  face  of  an  Ophelia 
into  a  countenance  of  rare  beauty  and  peace 
by  suggestions  appropriate  to  the  mental  con- 
ditions— he  who  may  have  seen  damning  de- 
lusions give  way  and  suicidal  mania  dispelled 
and  criminal  tendencies  blotted  out  and  mor- 
al leprosy  cleansed,  because  harmonious  and 
at  the  same  time  exalted  ideals,  chaste 
thoughts,  and  wholesome  aspirations  have 
been  held  up  before  worn-out,  crippled,  mis- 
guided minds  ?  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that 
a  scrupulous  suggestionist  looks  upon  hypno- 
tism with  reverence,  and  comes  to  regard  it 
as  a  great  instrumentality  for  the  moral  and 
spiritual  uplifting  of  the  human  race  ? 

To  accomplish  his  part  in  the  work  of  re- 
^5 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

form,  it  is  essential  that  the  hjpnotizer  should 
be  a  person  of  pronounced  moral  principle, 
and  should  love  his  neighbor's  character  as 
his  own  from  the  Christian  stand-point.  He 
must  see  the  godlike  even  in  the  depraved 
brother — the  better  self,  the  reflection  of  the 
Almighty's  image  in  the  criminal  and  the  out- 
cast. However  obscure,  however  distorted,  it 
must  be  his  lofty  purpose  to  give  definition  to 
this  image;  and  we  well  know  that  as  the 
image  of  the  intellectual  and  ethical  divine 
assumes  its  clear  and  beautiful  proportions, 
all  sensual  thought-forms  are  forced  out  of 
focus.  The  climax  of  Christian  altruism  is 
reached  in  this  giving  of  soul  to  save  soul. 
x\nd  the  secret  of  success  consists  in  the  sub- 
stitution of  lofty  and  happy  standards  for 
the  sinful  impulses  and  demoralizing  beliefs 
that  hold  sway.  The  reader  can  judge  of  the 
responsibility  resting  upon   a  conscientious 

physician  who  undertakes  this,  of  the  knowl- 
i6 


What  is  Hypnosis  ?  . 

edge  of  the  patient's  inner  life  tliat  is  re- 
quired, of  the  phenomenal  discrimination  and 
the  "unswerving  principle  essential  to  moral 
triumphs.  A  high  -  minded  hypnotist  will 
make  no  compromise  with  vice. 

IsTor  are  infallible  judgment  and  unassail- 
able principle  the  only  requisites  to  the  suc- 
cess of  an  operator  who  meddles  with  the 
complicated  machinery  of  the  mind.  The 
general  knowledge  which  is  implied  in  the 
higher  education  of  the  day,  as  well  as  a  spe- 
cial acquaintance  with  the  natural  history 
of  mental  and  nervous  diseases,  is  equally  in- 
dispensable. A  practitioner  of  hypnotism 
should  be  a  proficient  in  the  physical  sciences, 
in  literature,  language,  belles  -  lettres,  art, 
sociology,  theology  —  for  he  never  knows 
into  what  field  the  necessities  of  a  given 
case  may  carry  him,  or  upon  what  de- 
I  partment  of  knowledge  he  may  be  compelled 
to  draw  for  his  constructive  treatment.     Gen- 

B  17 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

eralities  are  of  little  avail;  puerilities  are 
worse  than  useless.  In  treating  a  moral  per- 
vert recently,  I  suddenly  found  myself  con- 
strained to  present  constructively  to  his  sub- 
liminal self  the  functions  and  technic  of  the 
novelette,  the  only  justifiable  outlet  for  his 
diseased  mental  energies  being  in  the  direc- 
tion of  fiction-writing.  In  the  case  of  an- 
other patient,  who  had  become  infected  in 
India  with  pantheistic  ideas,  I  was  obliged 
to  sound  the  depths  of  Yedanta  philosophy. 
In  a  third  instance,  I  was  under  the  necessity 
of  explaining  to  a  hypnotized  woman  that 
she  could  not  commit  the  unpardonable  sin 
(ascribing  the  miracles  of  Christ  to  the  power 
of  Satan),  and  thus  succeeded  in  removing 
the  delusion.  One's  knowledge,  moreover, 
must  be  immediately  accessible,  as  there  is 
generally  neither  time  nor  opportunity  to 
hunt  at  force  the  appropriate  antidote  for 
a  morbid  fear,  imperative  conception,  or  de- 


I 


What  is  Hypnosis? 

lusional  mental  state — and  hunting  counter 
is  fatal.  The  ideal  suggestionist  must  be  a 
carefully  educated  man.  Ignorance  in  an 
operator  is  a  disqualifying  defect ;  soul-exalt- 
ing suggestions  are  full  of  atmosphere.  Per- 
haps no  one  human  mind,  however  highly 
trained  and  widely  philanthropic,  can  be  suf- 
ficiently comprehensive  to  apply  suggestive 
treatment  successfully  to  every  case  encoun- 
tered. 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  order  to  insure  the 
beneficial  effects  of  hypnotism,  to  carry  the 
subject  into  the  deeper  somnambulous  stage 
characterized  by  intellectual  alertness  and  ap- 
parently purposive  acts,  but  by  absence  of  re- 
action to  sense  impressions.  The  conversion 
of  a  hypnotized  patient  into  a  somnambule 
is  always  to  be  deprecated.  In  the  first  stage 
of  deep  hypnotic  sleep,  the  subliminal  self 
unhesitatingly  accepts  every  emphatic  state- 
ment of  the  hypnotizer ;  but  even  where  som- 
19 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

Holism  is  not  complete  and  a  state  of  semi- 
consciousness exists,  suggestions  are  acqui- 
esced in  by  the  patient.  Lethargy  is  by  no 
means  essential  to  success.  This  fact  is  not 
generally  realized,  the  popular  opinion  being 
that  the  subject  must  pass  into  a  cataleptic 
state  or  trance,  during  the  continuance  of 
which  seemingly  miraculous  changes  are 
wrought  by  the  hypnotist.  But  in  hypno- 
toid  states,  or  states  of  incomplete  hypnosis, 
characterized  by  partial  consciousness  and 
limited  power  of  memory,  suggestions  are 
also  efficacious,  and  such  states  seem  to  be 
especially  adapted  to  educational  work — the 
development  of  the  mental  faculties  and  the 
conversion  of  potential  into  active  genius.  It 
is  needless  to  enlarge  upon  the  tact,  patience, 
and  erudition  required  for  labor  in  this  field. 
Almost  any  sane  person  may  be  brought  into 
a  hypnotic  condition  of  objective  passiveness 
by  a  skilful  and  persevering  operator. 
20 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

The  deliberate  forcing  of  a  thought  upon 
the  mind  of  a  partially  hypnotized  or  even  an 
imhypnotized  person  with  the  result  of  se- 
curing the  uplift  in  view,  is  a  procedure 
sometimes  resorted  to  by  the  author  when 
hypnotization  is  difficult  or  impossible.  In 
his  practice,  this  "  thinking  the  thought  into 
the  mind  of  the  subject ''  usually  implies 
the  subject^s  consent.  It  may  be  done  (and 
he  has  done  it)  without  the  knowledge  or 
consent  of  the  person  operated  upon ;  and  it 
can  be  done  even  without  the  co-operation 
of  the  hypnotist's  will,  when  in  the  line  of 
his  imperative  desires.  It  were  idle  to  spec- 
ulate on  the  medium  of  communication — the 
manner  in  which  a  subjective  mind  projects 
its  wish  or  thought,  unbeknown  to  its  objec- 
tive fellow,  with  a  strength  sufficient  to  hypno- 
tize a  separate  duplex  personality.  There 
are  in  the  life  about  us  presences  that  can  be 
felt  —  that   compel   thought   and   action   on 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

planes  higher  than  average  levels — ^without 
conscious  intention  of  bettering  or  exalting. 
Contact  with  a  nature  so  near  of  kin  to  the 
Infinite  is  a  continuous  inspiration.  It 
stimulates  progressive  character  nutrition 
in  environing  selfs,  which  unfold  impercep- 
tibly, yet  surely  and  grandly,  year  by  year, 
till  they  borrow,  against  the  fulness  of  their 
bloom,  from  the  mighty  personality  that 
spontaneously  spells  and  sways  and  lifts 
them,  the  pure  fragrance  of  the  soul. 

The  question  is  often  asked.  How  long  does 
it  take  to  hypnotize  a  person  ?  Usually  from 
two  to  fifteen  minutes  are  occupied  in  estab- 
lishing somnolism;  but  there  are  refractory 
cases  that  require  from  one  to  two  hours  of 
intense  mental  effort  on  the  part  of  the  physi- 
cian. Children  readily  come  into  rapport, 
and  as  a  rule  are  easily  impressed.  Suffer- 
ers from  acute  nervous  depression,  watch- 
ful or  suspicious  patients,  and  persons  under 

22 


What  is  Hypnosis? 

the  influence  of  a  stimulant  are  difficult  sub- 
jects. Tea,  coffee,  or  whiskey,  before  a  treat- 
ment, is  an  obstacle  to  its  success;  and  the 
simultaneous  pursuit  of  any  other  means  of 
cure  splinters  the  faith  of  the  patient,  so  that 
he  secures  benefit  from  neither. 

As  to  the  awaking  of  an  hypnotic,  he  may 
be  told  that  at  a  specified  time  he  will  open 
his  eyes ;  or  that  the  operator  will  rouse  him 
after  he  has  enjoyed  a  refreshing  sleep.  In 
rare  instances  a  patient  may  continue  to  sleep 
long  after  he  has  been  directed  to  awaken. 
"No  harm  will  come  of  allowing  him  to  slum- 
ber on ;  for  during  hypnotic  sleep  a  mass  of 
nervous  energy  is  stored  up,  and  the  system 
is  in  consequence  put  into  a  condition  favor- 
able to  the  establishment  of  functional  har- 
mony. For  this  reason  certain  foreign  neu- 
rologists *  are  treating  nervous  patients  by 

*  Wetterstrand  and  Voisin.     As  far  back  as  1839 
a  Paris  physician   (Dr.  Chandel)   treated  two  sisters 

23 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

prolonged  hypnosis,  keeping  tliem  entranced 
for  several  weeks  at  a  time,  and  arousing 
them  at  intervals  by  suggestion,  to  take  nour- 
ishment or  attend  to  personal  wants.  Foolish 
attempts  on  the  part  of  thoughtless  or  igno- 
rant by-standers  to  interfere  with  the  man- 
agement of  an  hypnotic,  in  the  way  of  sug- 
gesting or  awaking  from  sleep,  have  been 
followed  by  distressing  and  even  alarming 
symptoms. 

There  is  no  memory  in  profound  hypnosis 

for  incipient  tuberculosis  by  keeping  them  under  hyp- 
notic influence  for  three  months,  assuring  them  from 
day  to  day  of  their  progressive  improvement  and  of 
the  certainty  of  their  ultimately  overcoming  the  dis- 
ease. They  went  about  with  their  eyes  open,  but  in 
states  of  personality  distinct  from  those  of  their  pre- 
vious life.  The  effect  of  the  treatment  was  a  marked 
increase  in  weight,  a  disappearance  of  all  tubercular 
symptoms,  and  a  restoration  to  robust  health.  The 
girls  were  dehypnotized  a  short  distance  from  the 
capital ;  and  when  restored  to  their  objective  selfs, 
their  three  months'  life  of  artificial  somnabulism  was 
a  perfect  blank.  Their  last  definii^iecollections  were 
of  snow  on  the  ground  in  Paris.     ^"^ 


What  is  Hypnosis? 

of  the  affairs  of  everj-day  life,  nor,  after 
awaking,  of  what  has  taken  place  during  the 
hypnotic  state;  but  in  a  subsequent  hypnotic 
condition,  the  occurrences  of  the  first  hypno- 
tism are  recalled.  Subjects  who  have  not 
been  lethargic  will  sometimes  insist  that  they 
have  consciously  heard  the  suggestions. 
When  asked  to  repeat  them,  such  persons 
usually  fail.  They  should  never  be  argued 
with  on  the  subject,  but  told  that  even  if 
they  did  hear  the  suggestions,  good  is 
coming  from  the  treatment  —  which  is  true. 
It  is  essential  to  divert  their  attention  from 
the  occurrences  of  the  seance.  Extremely 
neurotic  persons  to  whom  the  suggestions 
are  at  first  consciously  audible,  become  as 
a  rule  more  and  more  somnolent  with  each 
subsequent  trial.  Patients  who  have  been 
profoundly  lethargic  often  declare  that  they 
have  not  been  asleep  at  all.  In  normal  sleep 
there  is  after  waking  an  ill-defined  conscious- 
25 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

ness  of  tlie  passage  of  time ;  in  hypnosis,  there 
is  none.  Hence  the  degree  of  accuracy  with 
which  lapse  of  time  is  estimated  by  an  hyp- 
notic may  be  accepted  as  a  general  indica- 
tion of  the  deepness  of  his  sleep. 

Suggestions  out  of  harmony  with  opportu- 
nities, the  possibilities  of  a  career,  common- 
sense,  or  religious  convictions,  are  unlikely 
to  be  fulfilled.  Fortunately  for  the  protec- 
tion of  society,  the  power  of  suggestion  to  de- 
prave is  providentially  limited,  while  its 
influence  for  good  is  without  horizon.  A 
mesmerizee  quickly  discovers  the  hypocrite 
in  a  suggestionist,  and  a  pure  soul  will  al- 
ways revolt  at  the  intrusion  of  a  sordid  or 
sensual  self  and  spontaneously  repel  its  ad- 
vances. Whereas  it  is  comparatively  easy 
to  change  the  nature  of  a  kleptomaniac,  it 
is  hardly  possible  to  make  an  honest  person 
steal  through  post-hypnotic  suggestion.  On 
the  other  hand,  criminal  suggestions  to  an 
26 


What  is  Hypnosis? 

evilly  disposed  subject  would  naturally  lead 
to  criminal  acts.  The  mind  affects  the  line 
of  least  resistance. 

In  cases  where  a  weak  or  immature  mind 
has  been  brought  under  the  influence  of  a 
stronger  but  unprincipled  personality,  disil- 
lusionment or  dehypnotization  by  a  sugges- 
tionist  of  marked  personal  magnetism  and 
pronounced  moral  convictions  is  assured. 
Reversing  in  a  patient  an  attitude  intention- 
ally or  unconsciously  produced  either  by  him- 
self or  an  outsider  is  possible,  though  not 
always  easy,  to  a  hypnotist.  Collitigant 
suggestions  recall  the  philosophy  of  the  house 
divided  against  itself.  A  fair  kleptomaniac 
who  had  been  successfully  treated  during  the 
spring  was  returned  to  me  by  her  mother 
six  weeks  after  her  discharge  because  of  an 
unfounded  suspicion  that  a  relapse  was  im- 
pending. To  my  surprise,  the  girl,  who  had 
been  most  docile  on  previous  occasions,  re- 
27 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

sented  all  my  advances,  and  the  interview 
ended  in  a  scene  that  was  far  from  creditable 
to  the  young  lady.  At  a  loss  to  comprehend 
her  change  of  attitude,  I  consulted  my  rec- 
ords and  found  that  my  final  suggestion  had 
been :  ^'  You  are  now  done  with  me.  You 
need  my  help  no  longer.  You  are  going 
through  the  summer  without  a  dishonest  ac- 
tion." The  girl  had  simply  resented  any 
further  attempt  of  mine  to  hypnotize  her  by 
reason  of  this  imperative  suggestion,  realiz- 
ing that  she  had  not  sinned  and  that  the  sum- 
mer had  hardly  begun. 

Finally,  the  success  of  hypno-science  meth- 
^  ods  depends  largely  on  the  desire  of  the  sub- 
ject to  be  cured,  and  his  faith  in  the  power 
of  the  suggestionist  selected.  Given  these, 
and  the  battle  is  more  than  half  won.  As  a 
rule,  there  is  no  hope  of  securing  the  consent 
of  a  patient  while  the  controlling  passion  is 
in  paroxysm.  But  in  the  subsequent  reac- 
28 


What  is  Hypnosis  ? 

tionarj  stage,  appeal  may  often  STiccessfully 
be  made  to  the  regrets,  fears,  self-respect,  or 
higher  instincts  of  the  unfortunate,  and  ac- 
quiescence thus  secured.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances, a  high-principled  operator  is 
almost  sure  to  establish  a  rapport.  I  am  firm- 
ly of  opinion  that  a  Christian  philanthropist 
who  sees  a  reflection  of  the  image  of  God 
somewhere  in  the  soul  even  of  a  reprobate 
brother  or  sister,  and  who  is  honestly  ani- 
mated with  a  desire  to  illuminate  the  better 
self  in  shadow — I  believe  such  a  person  is  to 
a  greater  or  less  degree  en  rapport  with  every 
human  being. 


I 

i 


AUTO-SUGGESTION 


&«- 


Of  C^uD 


AUTO-SUGGESTION 

HYPNOTIC  treatment  is  frequently  re- 
inforced by  what  is  called  auto-sugges- 
tion. It  is  a  psychological  fact  that  the  sui> 
jective  mind  of  a  given  individual  is  as  amen- 
able to  suggestion  by  his  own  objective  mind 
as  by  the  objective  mind  of  an  outside  person 
or  a  spiritual  intelligence.  Suggestion  by 
an  objective  consciousness  to  its  own  sublim- 
inal self  is  known  as  auto-suggestion. 

It  is  my  practice,  where  the  circumstances 
of  the  case  will  permit,  and  such  reinforce- 
ment seems  advisable,  to  supplement  the  treat- 
ment described  in  the  previous  chapter  with 
auto-hypnotization.  The  state  of  mental  ab- 
straction called  reverie,  immediately  preced- 
ing natural  sleep,  has  been  found  exceedingly 
c  33 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

appropriate  for  treatment  by  this  kind  of  sug- 
gestibility ;  and  I  advise  my  patients  as  they 
are  about  yielding  to  slumber  to  say  to  them- 
selves that  they  will  no  longer  be  slaves  of  the 
dominant  idea  or  of  the  vice  which  is  wreck- 
ing their  lives.  Lapse  into  sleep  with  such 
a  thought  paramount  all  but  equivalents  sug- 
gestion by  a  hypnotist.  When,  for  instance, 
a  tobacco,  alcohol,  or  drug  slave  presents  him- 
self for  treatment,  actuated  by  a  sincere  de- 
sire to  escape  from  the  bondage  of  his  evil 
habit,  he  is  recommended  to  conceive  himself 
free  as  he  is  falling  asleep,  and  directed  to 
think  determinedly  in  such  lines  as  these: 
^*'  Whiskey  is  unnecessary  to  my  physical  wel- 
fare; it  is  injuring  my  health  and  my  brain 
powers.  I  do  not  need  it.  I  shall  no  longer 
use  it  to  enable  me  to  accomplish  work  in  ex- 
cess of  what  is  reasonable.  I  am  done  with 
dependence  on  its  stimulating  effects.  I 
shall  stand  on  my  own  resources  hereafter, 
34 


Auto-Suggestion 

utilizing  such  units  of  force  as  are  supplied 
by  the  assimilation  of  natural  food.  I  will 
cease  to  draw  on  the  reserve  fund  of  my  vital- 
ity." Addiction  to  the  use  of  alcohol  is  cur- 
able through  this  channel  alone,  although 
complete  reform  may  not  be  so  iramediate 
as  in  the  case  of  hypnotization  by  an  out- 
sider. Auto  -  suggestion,  however,  will  be 
found  a  most  useful  adjuvant  in  many  cases 
where  hypnotism  is  deemed  advisable ;  and  it 
should  be  explained  to  the  objective  self  of 
an  adult  patient  seeking  a  cure.  In  certain 
instances  I  have  ordered  treatment  by  auto- 
suggestion during  the  interval  preceding  a 
first  appointment  for  hypnotic  impression, 
and  am  told  by  patients  how  substantially 
they  have  been  aided  thereby  in  their  efforts 
at  reform.  Under  such  circumstances  auto- 
suggestion renders  doubly  effective  treatment 
by  post-hypnotic  suggestion,  which  should 
promptly  follow.  The  one  is  complement- 
35 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

arj  to  the  other;  and  the  more  intelligent 
the  patient,  the  more  satisfactory  the  re- 
sult. 

That  an  objective  consciousness  can  sug- 
gest so  forcefully  to  its  own  subjective  con- 
sciousness as  to  be  itself  swayed  rellexly 
by  that  subjective  consciousness  which  it  has 
itself  impressed,  and  in  the  one  line  of  its 
impression — is  a  most  marvellous  fact  of 
mind.  Auto-suggestion  is  the  great  psycho- 
logical miracle,  and  few  realize  the  part  it 
plays  in  the  drama  of  life.  It  accounts  for 
much  self-deception  and  self-elation ;  it  regu- 
lates the  number  of  births  among  intelligent 
people,  and  explains  the  increase  of  sterility 
among  American  women ;  it  renders  immune 
from  disease  and  perpetuates  diseased  states ; 
it  has  changed  non-contagious  into  contagious 
maladies;  it  is  lord  of  the  realm  of  habit;  It 
is  the  medium  of  utterance  for  hereditary 
tendencies;  it  lays  bare  the  secret  of  influ- 
36 


i 


Auto-Suggestion 

erce,  the  influence  of  what  is  seen  and  heard, 
of  things  unsaid,  of  things  undone ;  it  explains 
the  accomplishment  of  seemingly  impos- 
sible feats;  it  is  the  channel  through  which 
genius  finds  expression;  and  it  may  be  con- 
tended with  no  small  show  of  reason  that  the 
subliminal  self  of  a  Stratford  butcher's  ap- 
prentice, under  the  spell  of  an  objective  sug- 
gestion inspired  in  his  boyhood  by  the  Pag- 
eants of  Coventry,  created  the  deathless  plays 
of  Shakespeare.* 

*  A  writer  in  Chambers's  Edinburgh  Journal  of 
August  7,  1852,  ingeniously  suggests  that  the  ques- 
tion, Who  wrote  Shakespeare?  might  be  made  the 
theme  for  as  much  critical  sagacity  as  the  equally  in- 
teresting question.  Who  wrote  Homer?  He  takes  the 
ground  that  Hamlet  and  his  fellows  are  not  only 
the  productions  of  one  mind,  but  are  beyond  com- 
parison the  greatest  productions  which  man's  in- 
tellect, not  divinely  inspired,  has  yet  achieved.  Who 
conceived  these  characters?  Certainly  not  the  cau- 
tious, calculating  business  man  of  Stratford,  who  al- 
ways had  money  to  lend  and  money  to  spend,  who 
worked  for  the  good  things  of  this  world,  and  was 
without  a  higher  education.     Then  follows  the  clever 

37 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

The  means  employed  to  tempt  the  objective 
self  to  impress  its  own  subliminal  self  for 
the  purpose  of  inclining  to  meritorious,  fool- 
ish, or  reprehensible  action  on  the  part  of 
that  objective  self,  are  everywhere  conspicu- 
ous. The  devices  of  tradesmen  to  entrap 
the  duplex  personality  have  become  notori- 
ous. The  objective  self  is  first  impressed 
through  the   sense   organs;    it  then  begins, 

explanation  that  this  Shakespeare  kept  a  poet — this 
keen-sighted  man,  careless  of  fame  and  intent  on 
money-getting,  found  in  some  London  garret  a  pale 
student,  upon  whose  genius  he  drew  for  the  dramas 
that  were  palmed  off  on  a  credulous  public  as  his 
own.  Shakespeare's  friends  would  fall  in  with  the 
deception.  The  kept  poet  could  be  sent  on  tours,  be- 
come filled  with  historical  associations,  and  learn  in- 
timately the  geographical  features  of  many  sections 
for  delineation  in  the  plays.  Thus  the  scenery  of 
Macbeth  might  easily  be  accounted  for,  Shakespeare 
himself  having  never  been  in  Scotland.  This  theory 
disposes  of  many  of  the  difficulties  that  have  baffled 
the  critics ;  yet  if  Ben  Jonson's  statement  is  to  be  be- 
lieved, that  Shakespeare  really  wrote  Shakespeare, 
the  poet  the  Stratford  money-monger  kept  was  his 
own  subliminal  self. 

38 


Auto-Suggestion 

often  unwittingly,  its  work  of  suggesting  to 
its  subliminal  fellow  the  desirability  or  pro- 
priety or  necessity  of  purchasing  what  is  ill- 
adapted,  perhaps  unnecessary,  generally  use- 
less, often  injurious.  The  controlling  de- 
sire is  next  transmitted  in  a  return  current, 
as  an  imperative  automatic  demand,  to  the 
self  that  acts  through  bodily  organs,  and  the 
purpose  of  your  solicitor,  window-decorator, 
di  splay er  of  tempting  wares,  or  bargain- 
counter  liar,  is  accomplished. 

The  science  of  advertising  is  based  on  the 
foregoing  principle;  and  there  is  no  better 
illustration  of  this  fact  than  is  to  be  found  in 
its  relation  to  the  patent-medicine  business. 
A  patent  medicine  is  a  medicine  whose  com- 
position is  concealed  in  order  that  it  may  be 
advertised  as  a  marvellous  specific.  It  is 
usually  composed  of  some  worthless  simple 
other  than  represented,  or  contains  substances 
dangerous  to  health  and  life.     As  a  rule,  it 

39 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

is  got  up  by  some  man  or  woman  with  little 
or  no  pretension  to  medical  education,  who 
flourishes  like  a  parasite  on  a  deluded  public, 
and  trifles  with  human  life,  recklessly  in- 
different to  consequences.  Many  of  these 
persons  are  criminally  responsible  for  ob- 
taining money  under  false  pretences  (their 
goods  not  being  as  represented),  as  well  as 
for  fraudulently  administering  drugs  that 
undermine  the  bodily  and  mental  health  of 
those  who  buy — and  all  this  under  the  pious 
pretext  of  renovating  an  exhausted  body  and 
restoring  the  powers  of  a  jaded  brain. 

The  patent-medicine  business  is  an  im- 
mense business,  and  like  a  great  octopus  ex- 
tends its  sucker-covered  arms  into  the  very 
vitals  of  trade.  Half  the  rural  newspapers 
would  be  forced  into  bankruptcy  were  it  not 
for  the  lying  advertisements  of  the  manu- 
facturers of  proprietary  drugs.  The  coun- 
try pharmacists  would  have  to  put  out  their 
40 


Auto-Suggestion 

lamps;  the  country  stores  would  hardly  pay 
their  expenses;  the  printing  establishments 
would  see  the  traditional  wolf  stretched  out 
on  their  door-mats,  if  it  were  not  for  the  sag- 
was,  vegetable  compounds,  nervines,  and 
golden  remedies  which  are  advertised  "  to 
bring  men  and  women  out  of  torture  worse 
than  death/'  The  object  of  these  advertise- 
ments, placards,  and  pictures,  is  to  induce  this 
torture  by  impressing  thought-forms  on  the 
thought  machines  or  brains  of  credulous  per- 
sons— who  are  physically  well,  and  among 
whom  disease  increases  in  the  same  ratio  as 
patent-medicine  advertisements.  The  dis- 
eased thoughts,  and  thoughts  of  disease  sug- 
gested thereby  to  the  objective  self  and  then 
transferred  to  the  subliminal  self,  are  brought 
to  a  focus  in  the  material  bodily  organs,  and 
imaginary  sickness,  even  more  prolific  of  dis- 
comfort and  pain  than  actual  organic 
disease,  is  the  result.  The  charlatan  has 
41 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

attained  his  object;  he  has  produced  a 
state  of  mind  in  harmony  with  his  false 
representations,  and  fattens  thenceforth 
or.  the  distresses  induced  thereby  in  his  vic- 
tims. The  bold,  offensive,  and  terrifying  ad- 
vertisements of  the  day  represent  a  system- 
ized  attempt  on  the  part  of  a  legion  of  em- 
pirics to  create  disease  for  the  benefit  of 
their  pockets.  Through  the  complementary 
action  of  the  two  selfs  the  mind  tends  to  be- 
come like  whatever  it  dwells  upon.  "  To 
look  on  noble  forms,"  wrote  Tennyson, 
"  makes  noble,  through  the  sensuous  organ- 
ism, that  which  is  higher;''  so,  to  become 
conversant  with  the  circulars,  advertisements, 
hand-bills,  and  disgusting  portraitures  of 
these  unprincipled  nostrum-venders,  tends  to 
a  permanent  state  of  nervous  and  mental  de- 
pression. Constant  thought  of  any  condition 
produces  a  cortex  habit,  and  through  the 
operation  of  the  duplex  self  induces  the  con- 
42 


Auto-Suggestion 

dition;  and  this  is  the  foulest  imaginable 
prostitution  of  the  noblest  profession  known 
to  man.  In  a  work  on  medicine,  published 
at  Eome  two  centuries  before  the  Christian 
era,  Cato  the  Censor  exclaimed  against  the 
Greek  physicians  who  were  being  attracted 
to  Italy.  For  five  hundred  years,  he  said, 
the  people  had  led  healthy  and  happy  lives, 
in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  medical  faculty ; 
but  let  these  Greek  doctors  come  into  Rome, 
and  there  will  soon  be  diseases  enough  to 
treat.  History  proved  the  truth  of  the  wise 
old  man's  foresight. 

Every  practitioner  of  medicine  is  aware 
that  the  drugs  he  administers  are  rendered 
more  effective  by  a  belief  in  their  efficacy. 
Confidence  in  a  doctor  engenders  life-serving 
auto-suggestion ;  whereas  doubt  or  absence 
of  all  faith  in  a  physician  and  his  treatment 
is  apt  to  be  accompanied  with  negative  re- 
sults. "  The  talisman  is  faith."  For  this 
43 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

reason  a  knowledge  of  the  remedies  pre- 
scribed is  often  concealed  from  the  patient 
in  order  to  baffle  any  automatic  resistance 
to  the  physiological  action  of  familiar  med- 
icines. A  moral  may  in  like  manner  be 
drawn  from  the  credulity  of  the  modern  pub- 
lic, who  are  ready  to  believe  every  tale  of  mi- 
raculous cure  reported  and  illustrated  in  the 
daily  press.  The  greater  the  improbability, 
the  more  readily  do  the  gulls  seize  and  swal- 
low it — faith  cures,  mind  cures,  gold  and 
other  drink  -  habit  cures,  Christian  Science 
cures,  consumption  cures,  cancer  pastes  and 
plasters,  and  a  thousand  embrocations,  elix- 
irs, salves,  syrups,  and  potions.  Each  num- 
bers its  disappointed  victims  by  the  tJiousand, 
and  experience  seems  to  be  a  very  poor  teach- 
er, so  far  as  these  fad-chasing  sufferers  are 
concerned.  The  philosophy  of  such  credulity 
is  as  follows :  The  subjects  want  to  be  cured, 
and  by  exaggerated  suggestions  they  deceive 
44 


Auto-Suggestion 

their  own  subliminal  selfs  into  monstrous 
beliefs  regarding  the  possibilities  of  cure, 
and  rise  time  after  time  to  the  most  clumsily 
offered  lures.  Similarly,  through  auto-sug- 
gestion, some  patients  become  persuaded  that 
they  are  not  suffering  from  organic  disease, 
pass  on  through  the  several  stages  of  its  prog- 
ress without  invoking  the  aid  of  a  physician, 
and  find  themselves  face  to  face  with  death 
before  they  are  undeceived.  Such  is  the  in- 
evitable outcome  of  mental  and  Christian 
Science  treatment,  so  far  as  organic  diseases 
are  concerned. 

Auto-suggestion  explains  in  part  the  tri- 
umphs of  Moody  at  I^orthfield.  Under  the 
spell  of  his  eloquence,  his  listeners,  without 
resolution  or  even  consciousness  on  their 
part,  were  wont  to  conform  through  the  oper- 
ation of  their  aroused  subliminal  selfs  to  the 
elevated  ideals  held  up  before  them.  Auto- 
suggestion accounts  for  many  an  impromptu 
45 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

verdict  rendered  by  an  automatically  acting 
jury  in  response  to  the  appeals  of  a  master 
at  the  bar  or  the  attitude  of  a  partial  judge. 
Auto-suggestion  makes  plain  the  influence 
of  words  on  the  minds  and  hearts  of  those 
who  use  them.  How  true  it  is  that  by  em- 
ploying sophistry  with  others,  men  run  the 
risk  of  imposing  on  themselves ;  and  by  often 
repeating  a  statement  which  they  know  to  be 
false,  come  at  last  through  the  force  of  words 
to  believe  it  to  be  true.  The  subliminal  self 
accepts  the  falsehood  as  verity,  and  reports  it 
as  such  to  the  objective  consciousness.  Traf- 
fickers in  gossip  and  scandal  intuitively  ply 
their  trade  through  the  various  channels  of 
suggestion. 

The  very  saloon  has  its  psychology,  and 
the  sensuous  elements  that  surround  the  bar 
— fountains,  flowers,  birds  of  song,  glittering 
glass-ware,  realistic  paintings — captivate  the 
objective  self,  and  through  it  force  sugges- 
46 


Auto-Suggestion 

tions  on  the  subliminal  self  that  take  God  out 
of  the  character  and  the  career. 

Lastly,  the  Church  itself  has  figured  as 
mistress  of  the  art  of  suggestion,  of  the  utili- 
zation of  sensuous  means  to  induce  states  of 
mind  favorable  to  the  reception  of  its  dog- 
mas. In  proof  of  this,  note  the  repeated 
sense  impression  bj  the  dramatic  elements 
of  the  mass,  by  the  mural  decorations  of 
houses  of  worship,  the  fretted  arches,  the 
altar  shrines,  the  marble  figures  and  storied 
arras,  the  solemn  lights  transmitted  through 
subtly  tinted  panes  of  clerestory  windows, 
the  delicious  music  contrived  to  gratify  the 
ear  and  plunge  the  mind  into  a  passive  mood 
appropriate  to  suggestion  by  ecclesiastical 
professionals,  the  rich  incense  adroitly  cal- 
culated to  act  as  a  hypnotic  agent  through 
the  organs  of  olfaction.  Religion  appealed 
from  every  part  of  a  mediaeval  cathedral  or 
abbey  church  to  the  subliminal  self  through 
47 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

sense  captivation,  not  through  conviction  of 
the  understanding,  the  proper  basis  of  belief. 
Christianity  is  distinctly  the  religion  of  in- 
tellect, and  those  who  embrace  it  are  expected 
to  have  convincing  reasons  for  the.  hope  that 
is  within  them.  Of  this  great  truth,  even 
modern  churchmen  have  been  too  often  for- 
getful. 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  AS  THE 
MODUS  CURANDI  OF  CHRIS- 
TIAN AND  MENTAL  SCIENCE 


:st 


Of  caU^ 


i 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  AS  THE 
MODUS  CURANDI  OF  CHRIS- 
TIAN AND  MENTAL  SCIENCE 

SO-CALLED  Christian  Science,  anti- 
christian  in  its  pantheism  and  un- 
scientific in  its  technic,  has  seized  upon  auto- 
suggestion as  a  means  not  only  to  achieve  its 
seemingly  wonderful,  yet  perfectly  under- 
stood cures,  but  also  to  elevate  mind  and  bet- 
ter moral  r, 

It  were  idle  to  deny  that  Christian 
Science  procedures  relieve  the  sick.  Every 
one  who  is  conversant  with  the  subject  is 
aware  that  pain  is  quieted,  that  functional 
disorders  are  cured,  that  the  suffering  con- 
nected with  organic  diseases  is  borne  with 
increased  fortitude,  and  that  both  the  emo- 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

tional  and  the  moral  nature  are  singularly 
strengthened  as  a  result  of  Christian  Science 
treatment.  The  object  of  such  treatment, 
to  quote  from  Mary  Baker  Glover  Eddy's 
Science  and  Eealih,  is  "  to  destroy  the 
patient's  belief  in  his  physical  condition." 
The  proof  that  the  agent  of  such  destruction 
is  auto-suggestion,  cleverly  called  into  action 
by  the  voodoos  of  this  cult,  is  to  be  found  in 
Mrs.  Eddy's  own  statements,  as  well  as  in  the 
explanations  and  reported  experiences  of  her 
patients.  The  alternative — ^which,  by  the 
way,  this  woman  arrogates — is  the  direct 
application  of  a  supernatural  power  vouch-- 
safed  by  the  Almighty  to  her  and  to  the  im- 
postors who  are  disseminating  Christian 
Science  doctrines  and  methods.  All  place 
themselves  upon  an  equal  footing  with  Jesus 
Christ  (a  Christian  Scientist  in  advance  of 
his  age),  and  claim  to  ^'  heal "  in  the  same 
way  as,  they  assert.  He  "  healed,"  by  the 
52 


I 


Christian  Science 

power  of  mind  over  matter.  In  the  transac- 
tion of  this  business  of  "  healing/'  they  act 
as  spiritual  brokers,  always  for  a  liberal  com- 
mission, to  negotiate  on  the  floor  of  the 
Celestial  Exchange  for  what  they  are  pleased 
to  call  ^'  the  action  of  the  divine  mind  over 
the  human  mind  and  body.'' 

Both  Christian  Science  healer  and  hyp- 
notic operator  seek  to  alleviate  or  remove 
pain  by  impressing  the  mind  of  the  sufferer 
— the  one,  with  the  idea  that  it  actually  does 
not  exist;  the  other,  that  the  subliminal 
mind  will  so  regulate  the  outflow  of  nerve 
energy  to  the  affected  organ  or  tissue  as  to 
induce  a  nervous  diversion,  naturally  accom- 
panied with  deadened  perception  of  the  pain, 
or  entire  insensibility  to  it.  The  one  proced- 
ure is  moral;  the  other,  the  reverse,  because 
based  on  falsehood.  The  principle  that  "  be- 
lief in  pain  explains  pain  "  is  daily  exploited 
by  Christian  Science  doctors ;  '^  the  penalty 
53 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

for  believing  in  the  reality  of  sickness  is 
sickness."  Headache,  toothache,  neuralgias, 
etc.,  are  treated  by  attempting  to  persuade 
the  patient  that  physical  suffering  is  an  il- 
lusion; there  is  no  such  thing.  "  Tumors, 
ulcers,  inflammation,  pain,  deformed  spines," 
writes  Mrs.  Eddy, "  are  all  dream  shadows  " ; 
there  is  no  reality  about  them.  Metaphysical 
treatment  on  this  basis  is  daily  pushed  to 
the  verge  of  brutality  by  ignorant  and  ir- 
responsible practitioners  of  this  sect. 

The  relation  of  auto-suggestion  to  Chris- 
tian Science  cures  may  be  illustrated  in  cer- 
tain statements  of  Mrs.  Eddy^s : 

I.  "  Cures  were  produced  in  primitive 
Christian  times  by  faith."  ^Yhereas  this  is 
not  true — the  cures  being  the  result  of  su- 
pernatural power,  and  faith  being  the  con- 
dition of  cure,  the  fee  demanded  by  the 
Great  Physician,  not  the  cause — recourse  to 
the  argument  makes  plain  her  position. 
54 


Christian  Science 

11.  "  Convince  a  person  that  matter  can-* 
not  take  cold,  and  he  will  not/'  How  is  this 
to  be  accomplished  except  by  deceiving  his 
subliminal  self  with  the  monstrous  false- 
hood, and  then  calling  into  active  control 
the  subliminal  self  so  hoodwinked.  An  ob- 
jective self  blessed  with  common-sense  could 
never  be  "  convinced  "  of  such  balderdash. 
So  there  is  no  other  conceivable  way  of 
"  proving  to  invalids,"  in  the  face  of  the  con- 
spicuous effect  of  climatic  conditions  on 
health  and  disease,  "  that  they  can  be  healthy 
in  all  climates,''  except  by  downright  lying 
to  the  subliminal  self,  through  auto-sugges- 
tion, on  the  part  of  a  tricked  imbecile  objec- 
tive self.  The  result  of  such  cozenage  is  evi- 
denced in  the  premature  death  of  tuberculous 
stay-at-homes,  of  patients  wdth  Bright's  dis- 
ease retained  in  cold  wet  climates,  of  sufferers 
from  bronchial  catarrh  denied  the  palliative 
effects  of  moist  and  warm  climates. 
55 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

But  especially  in  the  following,  from 
Science  and  Health,  do  the  long  ears  of 
the  ass,  Fad,  crop  out  through  the  lion  skin 
of  science.  The  treatment  of  the  Christian 
Scientist  is  to  "  efface  the  images  of  disease 
from  the  mind  hy  keeping  distinctly  in 
thought  the  fact  that  man  is  the  offspring  of 
soul,  not  body ;  is  spirit,  not  material."  Such 
premeditated  keeping  in  objective  thought 
soon  impresses  (on  simple  scientific  princi- 
ples) the  self  that  is  automatic  with  a  belief 
in  Mrs.  Eddy's  fallacy.  The  faddists,  how- 
ever, who  are  bewitched  with  "  Eddyism  " 
reject  examination  by  inductive  methods, 
and  insist  on  changing  the  name  of  an  in- 
strumentality known  to  scientific  men  at 
least  as  early  as  500  e.g.  from  Pythagorean 
"  influence,"  mesmerism,  animal  magnetism, 
odylism,  artificial  somnambulism,  or  neuro- 
hypnotism,  to  Christian  Science.  On  pre- 
cisely the  same  principle,  reading  Her  book, 
56 


Christian  Science 

Science  and  Health,  is,  as  Mrs.   Eddy  de- 
clares, "  curing  thousands.'' 

This  work  has  been  found  a  most  efficient 
stimulator  of  auto-suggestion  by  ignorant 
and  inferior  minds,  who  imagine  that  its 
learned  nonsense,  which  they  cannot  under- 
stand, must  for  that  very  reason  be  replete 
with  meaning — and  whose  superstitious  in- 
tellects attach  the  same  virtue  to  its  psycho- 
therapeutic formulae  as  the  Southern  negroes 
believe  to  reside  in  the  conjurations  of  their 
voodoos  and  fetich-doctors.  The  patient's 
credulous  objective  intellect  is  first  impreg- 
nated with  faith  in  the  Christian  Science  sys- 
tem of  furnishing  relief;  it  then  suggests 
the  desired  relief  to  the  secondary  conscious- 
ness, which,  through  its  regulation  of  the 
ordinary  processes  of  digestion,  absorption, 
elimination,  circulation,  and  innervation, 
controls  functional  disturbances.  There  is 
thus  no  difference  between  the  philosophy  of 
57 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

the  cure  effected  by  the  suggestionist  and  that 
of  the  Christian  Scientist.  The  rose  by  an- 
other designation  would  seem  to  breathe  a 
sweeter  smell. 

The  only  way  in  which  the  hopelessly 
creed-bound  professors  of  Christian  Science 
can  be  cured  of  their  mania — for  it  is  a  true 
mania,  and  hence  is  not  approachable  by  ar- 
gument— is  by  counter-treatment  through  re- 
putable hypnotic  channels — disillusionment 
of  the  deluded  subliminal  self  by  radical  de- 
structive treatment. 

The  claim  of  Mrs.  Eddy  to  credit  for  "  the 
healing  of  incurable  diseases "  is  prepos- 
terous, and  argues  dementia  senilis  or  a  de- 
liberate intention  to  bait  gudgeons. 

An  organic  disease  is  one  in  vrhich  there 
is  a  structural  change  in  the  part  affected,  an 
anatomical  alteration.  Mrs.  Eddy  declares 
that  she  has  cured  such  diseases  "  as  readily 
as  purely  functional  diseases,"  and  with  no 
58 


Christian  Science 

means  but  mind.  This  presumptuous  claim 
is  equivalent  to  a  demand  on  the  public  for 
faith  in  her  power  to  work  miracles,  to  re- 
place a  honeycombed  kidney,  or  fill  a  cavity 
in  the  lungs  with  healthy  pulmonary  tissue — 
achievements  somewhat  beyond  the  power  of 
metaphysical  clowns  and  marvel-mongers. 

Auto  and  post-hypnotic  suggestion  are  util- 
ized by  the  reputable  practitioner  always 
with  reference  to  w^hat  is  possible  and  prac- 
ticable, as  well  as  to  what  is  desirable.  It 
is  unchristian,  antichristian,  criminal,  to 
employ  either  as  an  agent  for  deceiving  the 
credulous,  for  riveting  their  faith  to  impos- 
sibilities in  the  line  of  cure  through  persua- 
sion of  the  subconscious  self  that  miracles  are 
not  out  of  date.  This  role  every  Christian 
Science  healer  stands  prepared  to  play  with 
the  most  unprincipled  effrontery;  whereas 
no  conscientious  physician  pledges  the  impos- 
sible to  any  patient  in  the  hope  of  tempo- 
59 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

rarily  elevating  his  physical  or  mental  condi- 
tion, with  a  view  to  obscuring  an  inevitable 
termination.  To  do  so  would  be  immoral. 
It  is  plainly  the  duty  of  the  suggestionist  to 
represent  to  the  sufferer  from  organic  disease 
the  benefits  that  may  reasonably  be  expected 
from  the  application  of  hypno-science,  viz., 
the  control  of  nervous  symptoms  through 
redistribution  of  nerve  energy  by  the  induc- 
tion of  outflowing  currents  strong,  sustained, 
continuous,  and  evenly  disposed  over  the 
whole  body;*  the  establishment  of  functional 
harmony  and  the  habit  of  sleep;  and  the  in- 
tensification of  the  normal  powers  of  endur- 
ance and  resignation,  the  placing,  of  the  mind 
in  an  optimistic  attitude — but  no  miraculous 

*  In  the  calm  of  hypnosis,  at  the  command  of  the 
operator,  all  nervous  symptoms  subside;  the  heart 
stops  its  tumultuous  beat;  the  pulse  falls  from  120 
to  70;  the  respiration  becomes  slow,  regular,  and 
breezy;  and  the  sinking  feeling  about  the  praecordia 
is  put  to  flight. 

60 


Christian  Science 

cure.  The  responsibility  of  accepting  or  de- 
clining treatment  by  suggestion,  as  thus  ex- 
plained, must  rest  with  the  patient. 

What  is  popularly  known  as  "  absent  treat- 
ment "  is  nothing  but  suggestion.  A  healer 
advertises;  a  would-be  patient  responds,  and 
pays  the  required  fee.  She  is  notified  that 
at  certain  hours  the  healer  will  treat  her. 
She  is  foolish  enough  to  believe  it,  and  her 
faith,  or  auto-suggestion,  in  case  she  is  suffer- 
ing from  a  functional  trouble,  brings  her  re- 
lief on  purely  philosophical  principles.  She 
really  does  have  treatment,  and  may  better  by 
it  permanently;  but  she  does  the  work  her- 
self, and,  save  as  he  appeals  to  her  credulity, 
the  healer  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with 
the  cure. 


AUTO-SUGGESTION  AND 
FAITH 


AUTO-SUGGESTION   AND 
FAITH 

FAITH  without  works  is  dead.  So  faith 
unfounded  on  rational  conviction  is 
dead  also — and  certainly  unacceptable  to  the 
Almighty  from  the  stand-point  of  the  Bible. 
Why  does  an  intelligent  adult  believe  in  the 
cardinal  doctrines  of  Christianity  ?  Because 
he  has  examined  the  evidence  pro  as  well  as 
con,  and  satisfied  himself  that  they  are  true ; 
because  he  has  encountered  unimpeachable 
testimony  regarding  the  greatest  of  all  mir- 
acles, and  accepts  God's  plan  of  salvation 
through  the  incarnation  and  sacrifice  of  Jesus 
Christ.  He  has  laid  hold  of  this  both  ob- 
jectively and  subjectively — with  both  person- 
65 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

alities.  His  automatic  as  well  as  his  con- 
scious life  conforms  to  the  requirements  of 
Christianity.  His  automatic  self  has  of 
course  been  impressed,  but  on  a  distinctly 
different  principle  from  similar  impression 
by  a  belief  in  the  supernatural  without  suffi- 
cient evidence — a  belief  in  the  efficacy  of 
faith  cures,  divine  healing,  vitapathy,  oste- 
opathy, etc.,  which  is  necessarily  unsupported 
by  reason.  The  one  impression  is  made  by 
a  religion  that  worships ;  the  other  by  a  super- 
stition that  blasphemes.  The  one  represents 
the  incoming  of  God  into  the  soul  of  man; 
the  other  heralds  a  triumph  for  what  has  been 
called  "  Swarmism,"  or  collective  suggesti- 
bility, whereby  a  mass  of  inferior  minds  are 
dazzled,  and  through  suggestion  is  begotten  an 
enthusiastic  approval  of  the  freaks,  fads,  and 
follies  of  the  day. 

In  the  one  case  there  is  a  conspicuous  dis- 
position to  be  deceived  and  carried  away  by 
66 


Auto-Suggestion  and  Faith 

theories  inconsistent  with  reason  and  natural 
law;  and  a  frivolous  half -balanced  objective 
intellect  assents  to  the  preposterous  claims 
of  every  new  "  ism ''  that  is  agitated.  In 
the  other,  faith  is  crystallized  as  the  result  of 
deliberate  investigation  and  soul-satisfying 
subjective  experience.  The  primary  and 
the  secondary  consciousness  of  a  consistent 
Christian  are  in  perfect  harmony;  the  pri- 
mary and  the  secondary  consciousness  of  a  de- 
ceived enthusiast  are  really  in  antagonism 
because  the  subliminal  self  has  been  bent 
away  from  its  normal  standard  of  right 
apprehension  and  constrained  to  accept,  for 
the  time  being,  the  alluring  declarations 
of  a  persistent,  though  weaker,  objective 
self. 

The  faith  that  God  demands  of  man  is  the 
assent  of  his  reason  to  truths  credited  upon 
the  divine  word  as  contained  in  the  Script- 
ures ;  to  quote  Matthew  Arnold,  it  is  "  the 
67 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

being  able  to  cleave  to  a  power  of  goodnessg 
appealing  to  our  higher  and  real  self,  not 
to  our  lower  and  apparent  self."  This  high- 
er subliminal  self  is  gifted  with  spiritual 
perception,  as  well  as  with  supranormal 
mental  powers;  but  those  whose  lower  and 
apparent  selfs,  speaking  through  an  animal 
organism  and  swayed  by  unworthy  motives, 
suggest  repeatedly  to  their  better  selfs  in 
the  line  of  their  carnal  desires,  at  length 
benumb  the  whole  receptivity  to  spiritual  im- 
pression, and  thus  grieve  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  grace  daily  offered  is  daily  rejected,  until 
the  power  to  receive  it  is  destroyed.  It  ill 
becomes  finite  beings  to  judge  of  the  out- 
come; but  certainly  the  future  development 
of  such  souls  must  be  in  the  line  of  their 
earthly  choice,  unless  God  in  His  goodness 
shall  vouchsafe  to  break  the  shackles  of  per- 
verted suggestion  in  the  world  of  purely 
spiritual  life.  "  In  the  most  pessimistic 
68 


Auto-Suggestion  and  Faith 

forecasts  we  make  for  humanity  there  is  al- 
ways this  underprotest  of  hope." 

The  writer  is  not  to  be  understood  as  in- 
tending to  substitute  auto-suggestion  for  the 
grace  of  God,  or  for  enlightened  faith  in 
God.  Yet  in  the  providence  of  the  Almighty 
suggestion  is  made  practicable  by  His  amal- 
gamation of  a  double  consciousness  in  each 
individual  mind,  and  it  is  psychologically 
possible  that  suggestion  is  the  means  through 
which  God,  as  well  as  human  selfs  and  spir- 
itual intelligences,  communicates  directly 
with  the  subliminal  man.  And  who  will 
deny  that  it  is  by  the  quality  and  quantity 
of  such  communication  with  the  Infinite  that 
human  souls  are  distinguished  from  one  an- 
other? Cultivation  of  suggestibility  to  the 
influence  of  God  is  thus  cultivation  of  in- 
dividuality. Auto-suggestion  is  not  itself  the 
saving  grace,  as  Christian  Scientists  make  it 
under  another  name.  It  is  but  the  channel 
69 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

God  has  provided  for  the  conveyance  of  sus- 
taining grace,  the  vehicle  for  the  transmis- 
sion of  faith  to  the  self  that  spiritually  per- 
ceives, and  intuitively  apprehends  without 
recourse  to  logical  procedures. 


MORAL  REFORM  EFFECTED 
BY  HYPNOTISM  IN  CON- 
TRAST WITH  CONVERSION 
INVOLVING  MORAL  REFORM. 
THE    ETHICAL    VICTORY 


MORAL  REFORM  EFFECTED 
BY  HYPNOTISM  IN  CON- 
TRAST WITH  CONVERSION 
INVOLVING  MORAL  REFORM. 
THE    ETHICAL  VICTORY 

IT  is  argued  by  moralists  that  there  is  no 
ethical  victory  on  the  part  of  the  patient 
who  abandons  an  evil  habit  under  the  in- 
fluence of  hypnotic  suggestion ;  and  thought- 
ful persons  have  ventured  to  inquire,  What 
is  the  difference  between  a  moral  reform 
effected  through  hypnotism  and  a  conversion 
to  Christianity  involving  a  moral  reform  ? 

An    ethical    victory    in    the    abstract    is 
achieved   only  when   a   person   deliberately 
overcomes  sin,  or  resists  temptation,  without 
73 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

God's  help  and  without  suggestion  through 
the  subliminal  self,  but  solely  by  the  deter- 
mined effort  of  a  consciously  active  will  stim- 
ulated by  considerations  of  propriety,  of 
physical  safety,  or  of  worldly  expediency. 
In  cases  where  the  Holy  Spirit  empowers  a 
man  to  resist  temptation  or  to  perform  a 
meritorious  act,  there  is  certainly  no  abstract 
ethical  victory;  for  the  energizing  agent  is 
not  the  objective  self  concerned  acting  as  its 
own  Saviour,  but  an  outside  self,  even  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Christians  openly  credit  God 
with  aid,  because  they  apprehend  their  own 
insufficiency  and  realize  the  spiritual  acces- 
sions to  their  strength  of  soul.  The  conceit 
involved  in  a  claim  to  personal  moral  triumph 
would  be  inconsistent  with  their  profession, 
for  it  would  equivalent  subtraction  from  the 
functions  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  very 
Christ  contended  that  in  His  human  nature 
He  did  nothing  of  Himself.  The  victory  of 
74 


I 


The  Ethical  Victory 

Job — ^which  culminfited  in  that  cry  of  the 
soul,  "  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust 
in  Him  " — was  an  abstract  moral  victory  of 
the  highest  order,  achieved  by  the  godlike  in 
the  man,  without  specially  conferred  grace. 
Both  in  hypnotic  reforms  and  the  reforms 
accompanying  conversion,  petition  is  made  for 
outside  aid  and  action  is  taken  under  out- 
side influence.  In  each  case  the  ethical  vic- 
tory consists  in  the  cumulative  desire  for 
betterment ;  and  in  each  case  recourse  is  had, 
under  the  stimulus  of  such  desire,  to  a  strong- 
er and  richer  personality.  But  the  results 
consequent  upon  an  influencing  of  a  sublim- 
inal self  by  a  human  being  and  an  influenc- 
ing of  a  subliminal  self  by  the  Spirit  of  God 
differ  vastly  in  degree — even  by  how  much 
the  Spirit  of  God  is  superior  in  purity,  love, 
discrimination,  and  power,  to  the  spirit  of 
man.  Apprehension  of  a  depraved  moral 
constitution,  of  delight  in  the  law  of  God  but 
75 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

of  slavery  to  that  other  law  in  the  members 
that  wars  against  the  law  of  mind;  earnest 
wish  for  reform  when  the  state  is  one  of  moral 
disease  or  moral  mania — must  always  lead  a 
believer  to  sue  for  grace.  But  something 
more  than  prayer  is  needed.  In  the  treat- 
ment of  physical  ailments,  God  helps  those 
who  help  themselves,  who  avail  themselves  of 
the  services  of  doctors  and  nurses  and  of 
the  agency  of  appropriate  medicines.  So 
in  dealing  with  moral  disease,  where 
irresistible  impulses  drive  unfortunates  to 
the  commission  of  crime  or  steep  them 
in  health  -  destroying  vices,  it  were  irrev- 
erent to  trust  to  prayer  alone,  hoping  for 
some  special  interposition  of  Providence  in 
behalf  of  the  moral  leper.  The  psychic 
treatment  w^hich  science  has  approved — and 
which  is  just  as  much  a  means,  in  God's 
providence,  as  are  drugs  for  preventing,  cur- 
ing, or  alleviating  physical  disease — should  be 
76 


The  Ethical  Victory 

applied,  viz.,  judicious  hypnotic  suggestion, 
in  the  hope  of  re-establishing  control  by  ap- 
peal to  the  subliminal  self.  There  may  not 
be  so  great  an  ethical  victory  in  the  semi- 
automatic performance  of  meritorious  acts 
suggested  by  a  hypnotist  as  is  implied  in  a 
conscious  endeavor  to  do  right  with  the  help  of 
God ;  but  I  most  unqualifiedly  assert  that  sug- 
gestive treatment  of  this  kind  paves  the  way 
for  the  achievement  of  future  ethical  victo- 
ries which,  humanly  speaking,  would  other- 
wise be  impossible.  And  no  one  will  deny 
that  society  is  the  gainer,  whatever  the  eth- 
ical situation  may  be. 

Suggestion  is  to  be  regarded  only  as  a 
means  whereby  the  soul  may  be  reached,  and 
as  nothing  more.  That  the  Holy  Spirit  util- 
izes the  automatic  self  to  effect  His  regenera- 
tive work,  who  will  venture  to  deny  ?  That 
a  conscientious  physician  is  justified  in  em- 
ploying the  same  means  to  alleviate  mental 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

and  physical  distress,  smooth  the  pathway  to 
the  grave,  or  remove  moral  taints  from  the 
nature — and  that  he  can  do  so  without  shat- 
tering a  patient's  faith  in  the  Christian  relig- 
ion or  interfering  in  the  least  with  the  abil- 
ity to  achieve  moral  victories — no  person 
blessed  with  a  modicum  of  common-sense 
would  for  a  moment  question. 

The  waiter  is  naturally  not  in  accord  with 
those  visionaries  who  imagine  they  see  in  im- 
pression of  the  subliminal  self  an  explanation 
of  all  spiritual  phenomena,  even  of  the  Bibli- 
cal miracles,  and  who  hope  for  a  realization 
of  their  wish  to  rid  the  world  of  a  necessity 
for  Jesus  Christ  by  proclaiming  every  sub- 
liminal self  its  own  Saviour.  The  miracles 
of  Jesus  were  not  hypnotic  miracles  because 
they  involved  the  absolute  cure  of  organic 
diseases  and  defects.  Christ  may  have  util- 
ized the  subliminal  self  to  effect  character 
change,  as  the  Comforter  He  has  sent  among 
78 


The  Ethical  Victory 

us  may  do  to-daj.  But  He  touched  the  phys- 
ical organism  immediately  when  He  cleansed 
the  leper,  opened  the  eyes  of  the  congenitally 
blind,  restored  power  to  the  palsied  frame, 
and  animated  dead  protoplasm  with  a  living 
'psyche,  reincarnating  the  disembodied  spirit 
in  its  former  tenement.  ISTeither  patient  nor 
audience  was  the  dupe  of  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion, as  unbelievers  contend.  The  argument 
that  astute  Pharisees,  ever  on  the  alert  for 
damning  evidence  and  notoriously  so  baffled 
as  to  ascribe  the  miracles  of  Christ  to  the 
power  of  Satan,  were  deceived  by  a  mesmer- 
ist— that  the  whole  Eoman  world  was  hypno- 
tized by  a  Galilean  carpenter  and  a  handful 
of  fishermen — that  Palestine,  under  the  spell 
of  suggestion,  testified  so  irrefutably  to  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  the  Redeemer  that 
these  two  events  stand  proved  not  for  an  age, 
but  for  all  time — is  too  childish  to  merit  seri- 
ous notice.  The  theory  that  the  recipients 
79 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

of  Christ's  favor  were,  after  the  Christian 
Science  method,  juggled  into  a  belief  that 
they  were  not  sufferers,  and  that  such  a  ruse 
was  instantly  followed  by  cure,  is  based  upon 
a  blasphemous  construction  of  the  mission 
of  Jesus  but  a  degree  less  reprehensible  thaa 
the  sin  of  those  Jews  who  trumpeted  the  un- 
pardonable words,  "  He  casteth  out  devils 
through  Beelzebub." 


SUGGESTION    AND    RESPON- 
SIBILITY 


SUGGESTION    AND     RESPON- 
SIBILITY 

HEEEDITY  and  environment  make  us 
what  we  are.  Heredity  represents 
a  mass  of  potent  suggestion  transmitted 
from  ancestors  through  the  medium  of  "  he- 
redity -  carriers/'  called  germ  -  plasms,  .that 
unite  to  form  the  human  embryo.  What  is 
called  ante-natal  impression  is  but  suggestion 
to  the  forming  self  by  the  physical  mother. 
While  environment  may  be  explained  as  sug- 
gestion to  the  formed  maturing  and  educa- 
ting self  by  surrounding  influences  like  com- 
panionship and  instruction. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  physical 
characteristics,  predisposition  to  disease,  men- 
tal, moral,  and  spiritual  attributes,  insanity, 
83 


Of 


CAi^ 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

and  criminal  tendencies,  are  herita"ble.  It 
may  not  be  so  widely  known  that  excess  in 
the  use  of  alcohol  and  narcotic  drugs  induces 
in  parents  abnormal  nervous  states  that  are 
the  direct  cause  of  feeble-minded  as  well  as 
feeble-bodied,  of  epileptic,  idiotic,  and  even 
criminal  children,  the  untoward  tendencies 
being  perpetuated  under  natural  laws  to  the 
third  and  fourth  generation.  Where  lodges 
the  responsibility  for  viciousness,  profligacy, 
or  crime  in  the  grandchild  of  a  drunkard? 
xind  who  would  hold  that  the  offspring  of  an 
inebriate  mother,  saturated  with  alcohol  be- 
fore their  birth,  are  in  any  way  personally 
responsible  for  the  nervous  or  moral  diseases 
that  come  into  the  world  with  them  and  cling 
to  them  through  life?  Fortunately,  in  all 
these  cases,  there  is  a  strong  current  of  re- 
version setting  toward  the  normal  types  and 
higher  standards  of  remoter  ancestors  (ata- 
vism) ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  discreet 
84 


Suggestion  and  Responsibility 

suggestion  is  so  puissant  an  agent  to  oblique 
from  inherited  or  acquired  weakness  or  sin, 
and  throw  into  relief  the  noble  traits  that 
slumber  in  every  character. 

It  has  been  contended  that  in  view  of  the 
inheritance  of  multiform  attributes,  human 
beings  of  the  present  age  have  little  claim  to 
originality.  With  equal  force  it  may  be  ar- 
gued that  for  many  of  our  acts  we  are  not 
morally  responsible.  The  romance,  Elsie 
Yenner,  was  written  by  Dr.  Holmes  to  il- 
lustrate this  point.  The  real  aim  of  the 
story,  he  says  in  the  preface,  was  "  to  test 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin,  of  inherited 
moral  responsibility  for  other  people's  mis- 
behavior. Was  Elsie  Venner,  poisoned  by 
the  venom  of  a  crotalus  before  she  was  born, 
morally  responsible  for  the  volitional  aber- 
rations which,  translated  into  acts,  become 
what  is  known  as  sin,  and,  it  may  be,  what  is 
punished  as  crime  ?"  How  far  is  a  child  re- 
85 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

sponsible  for  inherited  tendencies  which  he 
knows  nothing  about  and  cannot  prevent 
from  acting?  I  can  but  believe,  with  the 
gifted  author  of  this  weird  story,  that  all  the 
unfortunate  heirs  of  evil  suggestion,  the  chil- 
dren who  are  morally  poisoned  before  they 
see  the  light  and  act  in  accordance  with  natal 
tendency,  are  proper  objects  of  divine  pity 
rather  than  of  divine  wrath.  To  me  they 
appeal  with  an  unwonted  interest."^     It  is 

*  There  need  be  no  Elsie  Venners,  strictly  such, 
in  these  days,  because  the  effects  of  ante-natal  shocks 
are  removable  by  suggestion.  The  influence  of  ma- 
ternal impressions  upon  the  nature  of  an  expected 
child,  if  not  perfectly  understood,  is  universally  ad- 
mitted. The  dominant  ideas,  delusions,  and  impera- 
tive fears  of  prospective  mothers  that  menace  the 
moral  or  mental  health  of  selfs  that  are  yet  unborn 
should  be  eradicated  without  delay  by  the  most  care- 
ful treatment.  Conversely,  it  is  possible  through  the 
same  instrumentality  to  stimulate  the  intellectual 
germs,  shape  the  moral  propensities,  and  so  deter- 
mine the  ethical  and  mental  destiny,  as  well  as  the 
mere  physical  constitution,  of  the  child  awaiting 
birth.  Experiments  are  now  making  by  the  author 
86 


Suggestion  and  Responsibility 

believed  that  a  better  acquaintance  with  the 
principles  of  heredity,  the  hoped-for  outcome 
of  investigations  now  making,  must  materi- 
ally modify  existing  systems  of  education, 
punishment,  and  reform,  and  recognize  sug- 
gestive therapeutics  at  its  true  worth  as  an 
instrumentality  for  betterment. 

Inherited  suggestion  measurably  relieves 
from  personal  responsibility  for  acts  auto- 
matically committed  in  the  line  of  the  sug- 
gestion. This  is  distinctly  the  teaching  of 
St.  Paul,  in  Eomans  VII. :  "  For  the  good 
which  I  would,  I  do  not ;  but  the  evil  which 
I  would  not,  that  I  practise.  Now,  if  I  do 
what  I  neither  approve  nor  wish  to  do,  I 
(that  is,  my  real  self  or  spiritual  part)  am 
in   no   sense   doing   it — but   the   indwelling 

of  this  volume  having  in  view  intra-uterine  inspira- 
tion by  suggestion  to  the  enceinte  woman.  The  pos- 
sibilities of  physically,  rationally,  and  spiritually  ele- 
vating the  human  race  through  this  channel  become 
infinite. 

87 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

inherited  tendency  to  deviation  from  the  di- 
vine law  is  the  accountable  factor  in  my 
wrongdoing.'^  Kleptomaniacs  in  lucid  mo- 
ments deplore  their  weakness  and  explain 
their  position  almost  in  the  words  of  Paul. 
The  two  selfs  that  contended  for  the  control 
of  Araspes  in  Xenophon's  historical  novel, 
The  Cyropaedia,  are  paralleled  by  the  two 
selfs  of  the  apostle,  viz.,  the  self  of  spirit  and 
the  self  of  flesh — the  one  impelled  by  desires, 
motives,  and  interests  diametrically  oppo- 
site to  those  of  the  other.  And  these  two  selfs 
of  Paul  correspond  to  our  subjective  or  sub- 
liminal personality,  the  pure  pneuma  which 
is  swayed  by  moral  impulses  and  intuitive- 
ly resists  deflection  from  the  perpendicular 
of  truth,  and  the  susceptible,  continuously 
tempted,  peccable  objective  personality  with 
its  ingeniously  contrived  excuses  for  gratify- 
ing the  sinful  desires  of  the  flesh.  Assured- 
ly, the  Paul  of  Komans  discerned  the  du- 
88 


Suggestion  and  Responsibility 

plex  personality,  bore  witness  to  the  battle  of 
the  selfs,  and  questioned  the  doctrine,  not  of 
inherited  propensity  to  sin,  but  of  inherited 
responsibility  for  that  sin. 

On  this  same  principle,  immoral  attitudes 
inspired  by  the  constant  suggestion  of  wicked 
or  misguided  parents  certainly  do  not  find 
place  in  the  category  of  punishable  sins.  The 
mother  who  forever  worries,  grieves,  fears, 
scolds,  raves,  fattens  on  scandal,  must  induce 
depraved  states  in  the  minds  of  the  children 
growing  up  about  her  through  the  potency 
of  incessant  suggestion.  They,  too,  develop 
into  selfish,  jealous,  narrow,  uncharitable 
beings  because  their  objective  intellects  have 
through  the  formative  years  been  impressed 
in  these  various  lines,  and  have  in  turn  sug- 
gested to  their  several  subliminal  selfs  false 
views  of  life  which  never  dissolve  into  the 
true.  How  far  an  absolutely  just  Judge 
will  hold  such  souls  responsible  for  their  mis- 
89 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

taken  opinions;  for  their  prejudices,  aver- 
sions, and  hates;  for  their  predilections  and 
their  loves — is  surely  a  legitimate  question 
for  discussion.  The  principle  involved  is 
entirely  distinct  from  that  which  obtains  in 
deliberate  suggestion  to  matured  minds, 
where  the  obligation  to  examine  both  sides 
of  a  presented  case  is  binding,  and  the  re- 
sponsibility of  deciding  in  accordance  with 
the  evidence  is  fixed  and  recognized.  Under 
such  circumstances,  the  soul  is  held  account- 
able for  wilfully  or  thoughtlessly  entertain- 
ing the  compromising  suggestion.  Duty  im- 
plies not  only  doing  what  is  right,  but  finding 
out  what  is  right  in  order  to  do  it. 

Although  the  Apostle  implied  in  his  use 
of  the  Greek  word  a^apria  an  inherited 
tendency  to  sin,  he  nowhere  intimated  that 
sane  adults  endowed  with  powers  of  examina- 
tion and  judgment  are  not  accountable  for 
their  sins.     But  he  sought  to  show  men  that 


Suggestion  and  Responsibility 

the  sins  of  the  objective  self  are,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  passion  and  lust,  committed  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  holy  instincts  of 
the  subjective  self,  rov  ecrco  avOpcoirov,  the  in- 
ward man;  and  thus  he  was  the  first  to 
exhort  human  beings  to  put  the  subliminal 
self  in  control — the  superior  part  of  their 
nature  which  delights  in  the  law  of  God  above 
the  carnal  part  which  serves  the  power  of  sin. 
And  this  is  accomplished  bj  submitting  the 
subliminal  personality,  through  consent  of 
the  self-convicted  sin-serving  "  flesh  "  (tJ  Se 
<TapK\)y  to  impression  by  the  grace  of  God. 
The  impulse  to  right-doing  thus  imparted  is 
obeyed  by  the  conscious  man  who,  in  his 
weakness  and  despair,  prayed  passionately 
for  it  in  his  objective  life.  Such  is  the  in- 
terpretation psychology  would  place  upon  the 
philosophy  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

What  has  been  said  of  the  parent  holds 
true  of  the  teacher,  who  stands  in  the  next 
91 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

nearest  relation  to  the  developing  child. 
School  as  well  as  home  suggestion  deter- 
mines character.  The  natural  teacher 
wields  a  hypnotic  influence;  and  when 
the  automatic  self  of  a  pupil  is  once 
under  his  control  and  controls  in  turn 
the  thoughts  and  acts  of  its  own  objective 
child  self — where  lies  the  responsibility  for 
these  thoughts  and  acts  ?  The  greatest  edu- 
cators contend  to-day,  as  they  have  always 
contended,  that  the  youngest  pupils  should  be 
under  the  influence  of  the  most  experienced 
and  most  cultured  teachers — men  and  wom- 
en of  beautiful  character,  of  inflexible  ad- 
herence to  Christian  principle,  calm,  sincere, 
strong,  dead  to  all  selfish  interests,  and  pro- 
foundly impressed  with  the  gravity  of  the 
work  they  have  taken  in  hand.  Instead  of 
this  type  of  instructor,  thoughtless  untrained 
grammar-lads   and   conceited   girl-graduates 

are  intrusted  with  the  most  solemn  of  duties 
92 


Suggestion  and  Responsibility 

— that  of  giving  the  earliest  and  most  impor- 
tant bent  to  youthful  souls. 

It  is  evident  that  between  suggestion  as 
involved  in  heredity  and  suggestion  as  im- 
plied in  environment,  a  large  mass  of  what 
is  called  responsibility — the  state  of  being 
answerable  or  accountable  for  deliberate 
thoughts,  words,  and  actions — is  obliterated. 


MORAL  USE  OF  HYPNOTISM. 
SUGGESTION  IN  THE  TREAT- 
MENT OF  THE  CIGARETTE 
HABIT 


MORAL  USE  OF  HYPNOTISM. 
SUGGESTION  IN  THE  TREAT- 
MENT OF  THE  CIGARETTE 
HABIT 

OUT  of  the  general  interest  centering 
of  late  years  in  the  results  of  psy- 
chological research  has  recently  sprung  a  spe- 
cial and  absorbing  concern  in  hypnotism, 
particularly  with  reference  to  its  use  as  a 
moralizing  agent.  It  was  in  the  hope  of  es- 
tablishing an  inductive  principle  as  regards 
the  applicability  of  suggestive  therapeutics 
to  the  eradication  of  criminal  traits,  heredi- 
tary and  acquired,  that  the  writer  began,  dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1899,  a  series  of  exj)eri- 
ments  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan.  The 
G  97 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

cases  of  moral  import  successfully  treated  by 
suggestion  may  be  classified  under  the  follow- 
ing heads : — 

Cigarette  Addiction. 

Inebriety  and  Morphinomania. 

Kleptomania  and  Hopeless  Dishonesty. 

Sexual  Perversions 

Wilfulness,  Disobedience,  and  Habitual 
Falsehood  in  Children. 

Intellectual  Disequilibration  and  Moral 
Anaesthesia. 

The  value  of  post-hypnotic  and  auto-sug- 
gestion for  the  cure  of  crime  and  for  the  cor- 
rection of  certain  phases  of  perverted  men- 
tality no  longer  admits  of  question. 

In  one  of  the  IN'ew  York  lodging-houses  for 

boys,  the  only  institution  of  the  kind  to  which 

the  writer  was  accorded  access,  a  number  of 

intelligent    young    fellows,  representing  the 

9? 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

newsboy,  bootblack,  and  errand-boy  class, 
were  found  desirous  of  being  freed  from 
practices  prejudicial  to  their  physical  and 
moral  health.  The  cases  there  encountered 
included  cigarette  addiction,  kleptomania, 
moral  perversion,  and  low  or  misdirected 
intelligence.  The  method  pursued  with  cig- 
arette-smokers, some  of  whom  admitted  the 
smoking  of  forty  to  fifty  cigarettes  a  day  and 
exhibited  many  symptoms  of  nicotine  poison- 
ing, was  to  deprive  them  gradually  of  the 
stimulant.*     The   suggestion   was   given   to 

*  If  a  stimulant  like  tobacco,  alcohol,  cocaine,  or 
morphia,  be  removed  suddenly  by  a  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion to  the  effect  that  it  is  not  needed  and  will  no 
longer  be  resorted  to,  the  same  serious  depression  is 
likely  to  follow  discontinuance  of  its  use  as  is  ob- 
servable in  objective  treatment.  In  the  case  of  pa- 
tients stimulating  both  with  morphia  and  cocaine,  it 
is  my  practice  to  take  the  cocaine  away  first,  and 
then,  after  the  patient  has  been  gradually  deprived  of 
this  drug,  to  begin  on  the  morphia.  The  tendency  to 
go  beyond  the  requirements  of  a  suggestion  must  also 
be  borne  in  mind  in  the  case  of  patients  depending  on 

99 


\fOj 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

smoke  fewer  cigarettes  each  day  of  the  en- 
suing week,  until  the  number  was  finally  re- 
duced to  one  after  each  meal.  At  the  second 
hypnotism  the  suggestion  was,  You  are  done 
with  cigarettes  and  have  no  further  use  for 
tobacco;  it  will  nauseate  you,  keep  up  your 
nervous  symptoms,  increase  the  irregular  ac- 
tion of  your  heart,  continue  to  irritate  your 
throat,  and  aggravate  the  eye  trouble  it  has 
induced.  It  will  interfere  with  your  success 
in  life.  This  repeated  three  times.  The  re- 
wards of  honesty,  moderation,  and  devotion 
to  employers'  interests  were  then  pictured, 
and  the  patient  was  told  to  wake  up  at  a 

dangerous  stimulants.  And  this  tendency  is  further 
complicated  by  a  propensity  to  substitute  another 
stimulant  for  the  one  withdrawn.  If  tobacco  be  in- 
terdicted, the  patient,  for  instance,  may  take  to 
drink;  if  the  use  of  one  kind  of  alcoholic  stimulant 
be  checked,  recourse  is  likely  to  be  had  to  another. 
The  prohibition  of  whiskey  may  lead  to  the  intem- 
perate use  of  beer;  of  cigarettes,  to  the  adoption 
of  the  pipe;  of  morphia,  to  alcoholic  excesses. 

loo 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

designated  time,  feeling  encouraged,  ambi- 
tious, and  happy.  These  suggestions  are  al- 
ways fulfilled;  a  disgust  for  tobacco  is  pro- 
duced, sometimes  so  strong  that  after  the 
first  treatment  the  patient  will  almost  en- 
tirely forego  its  use. 

The  following  cases  are  typical : 
Frank  W.  Black,  aged  twenty,  who  had 
smoked  for  eight  years,  and  whose  daily  aver- 
age had  reached  fifty  cigarettes,  reported  to 
me  on  the  19th  of  March,  in  a  markedly 
nervous  condition,  and  with  the  respiratory 
passages  inflamed  by  the  inhalation  of  tobac- 
co smoke.  He  was  hypnotized  and  the  sug- 
gestion given  to  him  not  to  smoke  more  than 
four  cigarettes  a  day,  and  that  he  would 
overcome  the  habit  entirely.  He  came  to 
my  office  on  the  22d  of  March  with  the  fol- 
lowing report :  On  the  night  of  the  19th  (he 
is  a  night  watchman)  he  smoked  five  ciga- 
rettes and  a  pipe  three  times;  on  Monday 

lOI 


Hypnotism   in  Culture 

night,  a  pipe  twice  and  no  cigarettes;  on 
Tuesday  night,  a  pipe  twice,  with  no  desire 
for  cigarettes  up  to  9.30  on  Wednesday  morn- 
ing. He  was  then  hypnotized  again  and 
told  to  continue  smoking  two  pipes  for  three 
nights,  and  on  the  fourth  night  to  be  content 
with  one,  and  assured  that  he  would  entirely 
lose  his  taste  for  tobacco  in  two  weeks. 

The  second  case,  Andrew  Keane,  aged  eigh- 
teen, is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of  all. 
He  was  a  nervous  wreck  from  cigarette  addic- 
tion— suffering  from  tobacco  heart,  fugitive 
pains,  inactive  liver,  mental  torpor.  He  had 
persistently  tried  to  break  off  the  habit,  but 
without  success.  Failed  to  hypnotize  on 
March  19th  and  26th.  Ordered  him  to  re- 
port at  my  office  on  Tuesday,  April  18th, 
and  after  an  hour^s  trial  succeeded  in  pro- 
ducing artificial  somnambulism.  The  sug- 
gestion was  given  to  him  to  reduce  the  num- 
ber of  cigarettes  gradually  from  thirty  a  day, 

I02 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

his  average  when  not  flush  of  money,  and  to 
come  back  a  week  later.  This  the  patient 
did,  having  smoked  only  four  cigarettes  dur- 
ing the  whole  week  following  hypnotism. 
On  April  25th  he  was  again  hypnotized  and 
told  very  emphatically  that  he  had  given  up 
smoking  and  had  no  further  use  for  tobacco — 
that  cigarette  smoking  would  nauseate  him, 
keep  up  the  irregular  action  of  his  heart, 
destroy  his  nervous  equilibrium,  and  inter- 
fere with  his  business  prospects.  The  re- 
ward of  abandoning  the  habit  was  then  pict- 
ured to  him — restored  health,  the  securing 
of  a  position  in  which  he  would  win  the  re- 
spect of  his  employer  by  honesty  and  faith- 
fulness, business  success,  and  social  rise. 
He  was  told  to  awaken  with  a  feeling  of  en- 
couragement and  manly  self  -  dependence, 
which  he  did.  On  May  4th  he  came  to  my 
office  and  told  me  he  had  not  smoked  once  in 
the  interval,  nor  felt  the  slightest  inclination 
103 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

to  do  so.  His  general  health  was  good,  the 
rhythm  of  his  heart  perfect,  his  skin  clear  of 
an  erythematous  eruption  that  covered  his 
body  before  treatment.  He  was  hypnotized 
again,  the  general  suggestions  were  repeated, 
and  he  was  discharged. 

On  the  4th  of  June  last,  a  young  man  of 
German  parentage,  Schmidt  by  name,  came 
to  my  office  suffering  from  what  his  family 
called  tdbahvergiftung,  or  nicotine  poison- 
ing. Some  days  he  averaged  as  many  as 
three  packs  of  cigarettes  (60),  inhaling  the 
smoke,  and  thus  inflaming  the  respiratory 
passages.  He  exhibited  the  characteristic 
trembling  of  the  fingers  and  hands,  and  his 
face  was  covered  with  a  typical  acne.  The 
tobacco  eye,  involving  a  more  or  less  pro- 
nounced atrophy  of  the  optic  nerve  (tobacco 
amaurosis  —  dimness  of  vision)  not  infre- 
quently met  with  in  cigarette  addiction,  was 
not  marked  in  this  case.  There  was  no  oc- 
104 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

cupation  neurosis  like  telegrapher's  cramp, 
and  the  abuse  of  the  narcotic  had  not  led  to 
the  usual  excessive  indulgence  in  alcoholic 
stimulants  which  so  perfectly  counteract  the 
depressing  effects  of  nicotine.  Both  knee 
reflexes  were  absent — a  somewhat  significant 
symptom,  as  it  is  well  known  that  the  abuse 
of  tobacco  interferes  with  nervous  nutrition, 
and  hence  is  taken  into  account  by  neurol- 
ogists as  an  important  factor  among  the 
causes  of  tabes  dorsalis,  or  chronic  degenera- 
tion of  the  spinal  cord.  This  young  man 
had  exhausted  all  the  ordinary  methods  of 
treatment,  had  tried  in  vain  the  various  ad- 
vertised cures,  and  was  proof  against  the 
patiently  directed  influence  of  a  devoted 
mother  and  sister. 

Schmidt  was  hypnotized  and  the  suggestion 

was  given  that  he  would  not  smoke  more  than 

three  cigarettes  a  day  until  he  saw  me  again ; 

that  cigarettes  would  nauseate  him,  ruin  his 

105 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

health,  and  interfere  with  his  success  in  busi- 
ness. The  constructive  treatment  consisted 
in  picturing  fidelity  to  his  employer's  inter- 
ests, honesty  and  energy  in  his  service,  with 
their  accompanying  rewards,  viz.,  the  appro- 
bation of  his  own  conscience  and  objective 
recognition  of  his  merit  by  successive  pro- 
motions. The  exact  words,  which  were 
spoken  slowly,  earnestly,  and  feelingly,  were 
as  follows : 

"  You  are  about  done  with  tobacco ;  you 
are  through  with  the  poison.  Before  long 
you  will  stop  smoking  cigarettes  entirely. 
From  now  until  you  see  me  again  you  are 
not  going  to  smoke  more  than  three  cigarettes 
a  day;  you — are — not — going — to — smoke — 
more  —  than — three — cigarettes — a — day. 
You  hear  me,  from  now  until  you  see  me 
again  you — are — not — going — to — smoke — 
more — than — three — cigarettes — a  —  day. 
You  simply  cannot  smoke  more  than  three 
io6 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

cigarettes  a  day.  They  will  hurt  you  if  you 
do.  They  will  make  you  sick.  They  will 
nauseate  you.  You  —  simply  —  cannot  — 
smoke — more — than — three — cigarettes — a 
-day." 

For  three  minutes  I  spoke  impressively  in 
this  strain;  then,  after  a  pause,  I  gave  the 
constructive  treatment  as  outlined  on  page 
106. 

A  very  much  surprised  and  a  very  happy 
youth  was  Martin  Schmidt  on  that  Sunday. 
For  the  first  time  in  six  years  he  had  no  de- 
sire to  smoke  a  cigarette.  According  to  his 
own  account,  he  looked  forward  with  pleasure 
to  going  to  work  on  Monday.  ISTew  interests 
opened  before  him.  He  felt  a  desire  to  excel, 
to  display  greater  energy.  He  w^as  like  a 
new  man. 

On  June  6th,  Schmidt  reported  at  my  office 
again,  and  stated  that  he  had  not  smoked 
any  cigarettes  since  he  had  been  hypnotized, 
107 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

nor  felt  any  desire  to  do  so.  He  further 
spoke  of  taking  an  unwonted  interest  in  his 
work.  The  treatment  was  repeated.  He 
was  told  emphatically  that  he  had  no  further 
use  for  tobacco,  that  he  could  not  smoke  cig- 
arettes any  more,  and  never  would  want  to. 
And  the  same  outlet  for  mental  energy  was 
sought  in  his  business  opportunities. 

The  following  day  he  tried  to  smoke  mere- 
ly to  see  if  the  craving  was  gone.  A  fev/ 
puffs  made  him  faint.  He  had  never  known 
nausea  so  severe.  The  cure  was  complete. 
To  quote  his  own  words :  "  From  then  on 
even  the  thought  of  smoking  made  me  feel 
sick.  This  seemed  strange,  and  on  Wednes- 
day evening  after  tea  I  determined  to  try 
my  best  to  smoke  a  cigarette,  just  to  see  if  I 
could  do  it.  A  few  puffs  satisfied  me  that 
I  was  cured.  I  felt  deathly  sick ;  I  could  not 
go  on.'' 

Young  cigarette  smokers,  as  a  rule,  keep 
1 08 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

within  the  limit  of  my  allowance,  and  often, 
as  in  Schmidt's  case,  cease  to  smoke  after  a 
single  treatment.  Hypnotic  suggestion  is 
thus  a  far  more  satisfactory  method  of  deal- 
ing with  this  vice,  and  infinitely  more  prompt 
in  its  action,  than  any  tobacco  antidote  tab- 
lets, coca-bola,  tobacco  nervine,  etc. 

Cigarette  smoking  is  more  injurious  than 
the  use  of  tobacco  in  any  other  form,  first,  be- 
cause of  the  inferior  quality  of  the  tobacco 
usually  employed ;  and  secondly,  because  the 
smoke  is  inhaled,  thus  producing  the  most  de- 
pressing effects.  The  whole  system  is  tobac-. 
conized,  the  organs  and  tissues  of  the  body 
smelling  of  tobacco  smoke.  Boys  who  begin 
the  use  of  cigarettes  at  five  or  six  years  of  age, 
as  many  do,  break  down  during  the  critical 
period  of  puberty.  Boys  who  contract  the 
habit  later  in  their  youth,  and  defy  the  risks 
of  puberty  by  going  to  the  usual  extremes  in 
the  abuse  of  cigarette  smoking,  are  likely  to 
109 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

become  nervous  bankrupts  before  they  are 
twenty-one.  Indeed,  excess  in  the  use  of  to- 
bacco is  regarded  as  a  frequent  cause  of 
"  Americanitis/'  or  nervous  prostration. 

There  are  conditions  observable  in  some 
cigarette  smokers  that  would  not  seem  to  be 
legitimately  referable  to  nicotine  poisoning — 
a  lessening  or  complete  loss  of  moral  sensi- 
bility, with  a  conspicuous  tendency  to  false- 
hood and  theft,  which  suggest  opium  effects. 
Although  cigarettes  have  been  analyzed  sev- 
eral times  by  different  chemists  of  reputation 
and  responsibility.  Professor  Chandler  in- 
cluded, only  one  analyst  has  ever  reported 
opium  or  morphine  in  a  cigarette.  If  Dr. 
Chandler  be  correct  in  his  opinion  that  "  the 
worst  thing  in  cigarettes  is  tobacco,"  then  we 
must  look  to  nicotine  in  explanation  of  much 
of  the  moral  astigmatism  prevalent  among 
American  boys  and  young  men. 

A  recent  patient,  a  broker  by  profession,  af- 
iio 


The  Cigarette  Habit 

forded  in  the  history  of  his  treatment  a  very 
instructive  illustration  of  the  statement  made 
on  page  27,  that  the  mind  of  the  hypnotic 
affects  post-hypnotically  the  line  of  least  re- 
sistance. Cigarette  smoking  persisted  in  for 
years  had  induced  pronounced  nervousness, 
insomnia,  and  bronchial  irritation.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  first  suggestions,  this  patient 
had  dropped  from  twenty  -  five  cigarettes 
a  day  to  five,  but  in  the  excitement  of  a 
panic  had  risen  to  eight  and  subsequently  to 
fifteen.  Two  weeks  after  the  second  treat- 
ment he  reported  this  fact  at  my  office,  but 
supplemented  his  report,  apparently  discour- 
aging, with  the  statement  that  he  was  per- 
fectly well,  had  no  cough  or  restlessness,  and 
enjoyed  refreshing  sleep  at  night.  What  he 
had  really  consulted  me  for  was  accom- 
plished, and  yet  he  had  kept  up  the  cigar- 
ettes. He  asked  an  explanation ;  it  was  this : 
The  suggestions  to  discontinue  smoking  were 
III 


Hypnotism  in    Culture 

based  destructively  on  the  fear  thought  of  a 
distinct  relationship  between  the  physical  con- 
ditions and  the  use  of  cigarettes.  But  the 
subliminal  mind  found  it  easier  to  render 
him  immune  from  the  effects  of  cigarette 
smoking  than  to  interdict  the  smoking,  and 
hence  sent  out  its  decree  of  spontaneous  pro- 
tection of  the  nerve-centres  from  the  ordinary 
effects  of  the  nicotine.  In  the  subsequent 
treatment  all  argument  with  the  subliminal 
mind  will  be  dispensed  with,  and  the  craving 
directly  assailed. 


; 


DIPSOMANIA,   OPSOMANIA, 
MORPHINOMANIA 


DIPSOMANIA,   OPSOMANIA, 
MORPHINOMANIA 

THE  drink  habit  is  as  amenable  to  treat- 
ment by  hypnotic  suggestion  as  cigar- 
ette addiction.  In  fact,  some  of  the  popular 
cures  are  in  reality  mere  suggestion  cures, 
there  being  no  specific  virtue  in  the  drugs  ad- 
ministered, certainly  not  in  the  hypodermatic 
injection  of  Croton  water.  Periodic  drink 
storms  are  usually  forecast  by  significant 
symptoms  well  known  to  the  family  and 
friends  of  the  victim — irritability  of  temper, 
restlessness,  unaccountable  depression.  Im- 
mediately upon  the  appearance  of  these 
symptoms,  the  patient  should  be  treated  by 
suggestion.  Many  such  subjects  recognize 
their  danger,  and  sincerely  wish  to  be  cured. 
115 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

Thej  are  told  not  to  drink,  that  they  have 
lost  their  taste  for  beer,  wine,  whiskey;  that 
alcohol  in  any  form  will  disgust  them,  and 
that  they  cannot  take  it,  cannot  carry  the  con- 
taining glass  to  their  lips.  The  society  of 
low  companions  is  tabooed;  the  pleasures  as- 
sociated with  drink  and  the  glamour  of  the 
bar-room  are  pictured  as  meretricious;  the 
physical,  mental,  moral,  and  financial  bank- 
ruptcy that  accompanies  dipsomania  is  held 
up  before  the  view  of  the  sleeper,  and  he  is 
forced  to  the  conviction  that  begotten  of  this 
apprehension  has  come  into  his  soul  an  ab- 
horrence for  drink  and  all  that  it  stands  for. 
The  subpersonal  mind  is  then  directed  to  the 
vocation  or  the  avocations,  or  both,  as  cir- 
cumstances suggest;  and  the  subject  is  as- 
sured that  henceforth  he  will  transact  busi- 
ness on  a  higher  plane  and  seek  the  society 
of  persons  who  have  in  themselves  qualities 
worth  his  while  to  borrow. 
ii6 


Dipsomania 

Habitual  drinkers,  those  who  "  soak/'  as 
Goldsmith  described  it,  do  not,  as  a  rule,  wish 
to  be  cured.  They  enjoy  indulgence  in  alco- 
holic fluids  and  the  false  pleasures  that  at- 
tend it ;  and  about  ninety  per  cent,  of  them, 
women  as  well  as  men,  resent  the  approaches 
of  those  who  desire  to  save  them.  Some- 
times, when  no  other  form  of  appeal  is  ef- 
fective, they  may  be  frightened  into  a  real- 
ization of  the  fact  that  constant  use  of  alco- 
holic stimulants  will  result  in  organic  changes 
in  the  liver,  kidneys,  and  brain,  or  by  lower- 
ing the  general  powers  of  resistance  and  at  the 
same  time  irritating  the  bronchial  tubes  and 
the  lungs,  through  which  the  alcohol  is  in 
part  eliminated,  markedly  predisposes  to 
pneumonia  and  tubercular  consumption.*  In 
fact,  immoderate  drinkers  may,  in  sober  in- 
tervals, be  made  to  realize,  not  only  that  they 

*  Seventy  per  cent,  of  pneumonia  patients  use  alco- 
hol immoderately. 

117 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

are  physically  depraved,  but  intellectually 
degenerated  as  to  the  faculties  of  memory, 
attention,  concentration,  judgment,  and  that 
they  are  deficient  in  business  tact  and  in  the 
general  address  essential  to  success.  Once 
apprised  of  their  enervated  mental  condition, 
they  honestly  desire  to  correct  the  habit,  but 
cannot  of  themselves ;  the  craving  simulates  a 
mania.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  com- 
paratively easy  to  persuade  a  patient  to  ac- 
cept treatment,  and  a  rescue  may  be  effected 
in  a  week's  time.  But  the  treatment  must  be 
persisted  in  for  a  much  longer  period,  the 
tendency  being  to  abandon  it  too  soon  because 
of  a  belief  in  cure.  A  patient,  whose  lan- 
guage I  quote  to  show  his  confidence  after  a 
single  treatment,  subsequently  fell :  "  I  ara 
getting  on  splendidly,  and  my  better  self  still 
has  complete  control,  causing  me  to  feel 
that  I  shall  never  return  to  those  miserable 
times  again,  for  I  have  not  the  slightest  de- 
ii8 


Dipsomania 

sire  in  the  world  for  anything  in  the  alcohol 
line/' 

It  is  quite  common  for  patients  to  express 
themselves  similarly  after  the  first  series  of 
suggestions,  and  for  relatives  to  write  that 
they  are  "  astounded  at  the  result."  But  if 
some  unlooked-for  pressure  of  passion  and  al- 
lurement is  brought  to  bear  on  the  self-con- 
fident subject,  he  is  almost  sure  to  yield.  An 
inebriate  patient  who  went  two  months  in 
K'ew  York  without  experiencing  the  slightest 
desire  for  alcohol,  and  proof  against  all  so- 
licitations to  enter  a  saloon,  encountered  in 
Boston  a  combination  of  business  disappoint- 
ments and  temptation  that  proved  irresist- 
ible. Could  the  operator  foresee  such  a  con- 
tingency, he  might  avert  it.  Experience 
proves  that  it  is  always  better  to  deal  in  drink 
cases  with  the  nearest  of  kin  rather  than  di- 
rectly with  the  patient,  who  naturally  over- 
estimates his  powers  of  resistance.  Courting 
119 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

a  conflict  with  the  demon  of  drink,  as  many 
do,  is  playing  with  fire.  A  dipsomaniac  who 
was  sent  to  me  from  Paris  last  September, 
for  treatment  at  my  summer  home,  was  prac- 
tically cured  in  a  week.  He  returned  with 
me  to  'New  York,  and  there  insisted  on  living 
in  a  cabaret.     The  inevitable  soon  occurred. 

A  lady  who  had  resorted  to  whiskey  to  en- 
able her  to  bear  certain  domestic  troubles  was 
recently  induced  by  her  daughter  to  avail  her- 
self of  my  aid.  The  suggestions  given  were 
to  the  effect  that  she  would  not  succumb  un- 
der the  pressure  of  unhappiness,  but  would 
meet  her  trials  without  the  help  of  stimu- 
lants. Three  days  later  she  reported  at  my 
office.  Her  face  had  lost  its  congested  look, 
her  eyes  were  no  longer  muddy;  the  attend- 
ant, who  had  carefully  watched  her,  stated 
that  she  had  taken  no  whiskey  or  other  stim- 
ulant in  the  interval,  but  had  drunk  milk  in- 
stead.    This  woman  was  won  by  the  appeal 


Dipsomania 

of  a  daughter  to  whom  she  was  devotedly  at- 
tached. In  many  of  my  cases,  however,  sim- 
ilar appeals  have  been  fruitless.  Mothers 
who  have  consulted  me  in  behalf  of  intem- 
perate daughters;  fathers  whose  sons  have 
yielded  to  the  temptation  of  college  life  and 
have  been  graduated  drunkards ;  wives  whose 
husbands  are  sacrificing  brilliant  opportuni- 
ties through  their  inability  to  decline  the  in- 
vitations of  thoughtless  friends  to  drink  for 
the  sake  of  sociability,  or  to  abandon  their 
practice  of  resorting,  for  the  transaction  of 
business,  to  clubs  and  saloons,  where  every 
contract  must  be  sealed  with  champagne — 
are  unable  to  persuade  the  several  objects  of 
their  solicitude  to  submit  to  the  treatment 
which  alone  can  save. 

There  are  cases  where  the  drink,  tobacco, 
or  morphine  habit  has  become  so  ingrained 
that  the  early  promise  of  post-hypnotic  sug- 
gestion is  gradually  brought  to  naught  by  con- 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

tinual  returns,  seemingly  inexplicable,  of  the 
uncontrollable  craving.  The  automatic  mind 
struggles  in  vain  for  mastery  of  a  habit  which 
has  not  only  evolved  into  a  second  nature,  but 
is  forever  converting  an  unnatural  appetite 
into  a  fiery  passion.  Suggestion  in  such  an 
event  should  be  supplemented  by  appropriate 
drugs,  and  in  some  instances  by  discipline. 
In  the  insanity  of  extravagant  drinking  and 
of  chronic  nicotine  poisoning,  suggestive 
treatment  may  sometimes  be  delayed  with  ad- 
vantage until  after  the  compulsory  reduction 
or  withdrawal  of  the  artificial  stimulant. 
Patients  who,  to  rid  themselves  temporarily 
of  the  importunity  of  relatives,  accept  an  in- 
stitutional life,  with  mental  reservation  as  to 
their  habits  at  the  termination  of  the  period 
of  treatment,  are  proper  subjects  for  sug- 
gestion while  in  sanatorio.  "  The  tongue  has 
taken  the  oath,  but  the  mind  is  unsworn.'' 
Under  such  circumstances,  with  the  craving 

122 


Opsomania 

in  lull,  the  subliminal  self  may  be  success- 
fully impressed. 

Opsomania,  or  mania  for  articles  of  food, 
particulary  delicatessen  and  confectionery,  is 
a  much  more  common  condition  than  is  at 
first  conceivable.  Among  the  opsomaniacs 
who  have  applied  for  treatment  are — a  lady 
who  took  up  cooking  and  became  a  glutton, 
to  the  wreck  of  her  health ;  a  gentleman  with 
an  irresistible  craving  for  chocolate  bonbons ; 
and  a  young  man  who  described  himself  as 
"  handicapped  by  a  constant  desire  to  eat." 
Ilis  mother,  prior  to  his  birth,  would  scour 
the  markets  for  choice  grapes,  peaches,  and 
other  delicacies,  and  he  believes  that  he  has  in- 
herited a  longing  for  these  same  things  which 
leads  to  periodical  indulgence.  For  a  week  at 
a  time  he  is  able  to  control  himself;  then, 
like  a  dipsomaniac  entering  upon  a  debauch, 
he  gives  way  and  goes  to  excesses  that  are 
prejudicial  to  his  physical  well-being. 
123 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

Candy  mania  is  widespread  in  America ;  in 
fact,  the  greatest  enemy  of  the  health  of  our 
j^oung  women  is  the  manufacturer  of  fancy 
confectionery.  The  natural  liking  for  candy, 
under  the  stimulus  of  his  combinations  of 
chemical  flavors,  terra  alba,  and  glucose,  de- 
velops into  a  craze,  with  the  natural  conse- 
quences —  indigestion,  mental  indolence, 
chronic  gastric  catarrh,  and,  most  to  be  de- 
plored, a  fetid  breath,  which  renders  the  pos- 
sessor positively  odious.  The  breath  of  a 
healthy  girl  of  twenty  should  be  pure  and 
sweet  as  a  May  breeze;  when  transformed 
into  a  nauseous  blast  by  the  intemperate  use 
of  confectionery,  it  operates  as  a  justifiable, 
cause  for  consignment  to  Coventry. 

Morphinomania,  in  the  experience  of  the 
author,  is  a  most  difficult  drug  habit  to 
treat  by  hypnotism.  The  subjects  are  not  easi- 
ly hypnotizable,  and  the  suggestions  come  in 
conflict  with  a  more  than  ordinary  massive 
124 


Morphinomania 

impulse  to  resort  to  the  dangerous  spur. 
Moreover,  their  sincerity  lacks  staying  power, 
their  faith  is  equally  unstable,  they  become 
discouraged  on  the  slightest  pretext,  and  are 
prone  to  abandon  treatment  before  they  have 
given  it  a  fair  trial.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  life  of  a  morphinomaniac  objectively  try- 
ing to  overcome  the  habit  is  a  continuous 
hell;  and  to  a  certain  extent  this  torture 
seems  to  characterize  suggestive  treatment,  re- 
quiring the  administration  of  heart-sustain- 
ing drugs.  Two  cases,  I  know  I  have  saved — 
one,  a  young  lady  who  is  to  become  a  mother 
in  the  early  summer.  Her  husband  writes, 
under  date  of  March  13th:  "  For  weeks  she 
has  had  no  morphia,  and  you  would  hardly 
know  her  for  the  same  woman.  Thanks  to 
what  you  have  done,  she  is  cheerful  and 
happy,  and  has  entirely  lost  her  discon- 
tent and  tendency  to  think  about  herself 
and  her  feelings.  She  undoubtedly  plays 
125 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

better,  and  is  brighter  than  she  has  been  for 
years." 

Constructively,  this  patient,  who  inherited 
musical  talent,  had  been  inspired  to  utter  her 
feelings  through  the  piano  as  a  medium  of 
soul  expression,  with  felicity  of  touch  and 
brilliancy  of  execution,  in  imitation  of  the 
great  performers. 

The  second  subject  was  instructed,  while 
lethargic,  to  reduce  the  amount  taken  daily 
33  1-3  per  cent,  by  dropping  the  noonday 
powder,  and  the  depression  occasioned  by 
the  loss  of  the  morphia  was  compensated  for 
by  the  administration  of  1-30  grain  strych- 
nia every  three  hours,  ^  grain  sparteine  in 
the  intervals,  and  coca  port  ad  libitum,  with 
nourishing  food,  carriage  drives  in  the  open 
country,  and  cheerful  company.  By  such 
reinforcement  of  the  suggestive  treatment 
with  tonics  and  nervines,  the  patient's  nerve- 
centres  were  rendered  immune  to  the  usual 

126 


Morphinomania 

discomforts  of  deprivation,  the  dose  of  mor- 
phia was  quickly  reduced  to  1-100  grain, 
and  in  three  weeks  the  sufferer  was  radical- 
ly cured,  and  discharged  with  the  suggestion 
(given  in  hypnosis)  that  he  would  never 
relapse. 


KLEPTOMANIA  AND    HABIT- 
UAL FALSEHOOD 


KLEPTOMANIA   AND    HABIT- 
UAL FALSEHOOD 

KLEPTO]\fA:N'IA,  or  mania  for  pilfer- 
ing, is  true  moral  insanity.  Klepto- 
maniacs are  impelled  by  an  irresistible  im- 
pulse to  steal,  without  reference  to  any  use 
they  may  make  of  the  stolen  articles.  They 
are  often  persons  of  wealth,  with  means  at 
their  disposal  to  gratify  every  whim.  This 
moral  disease  more  commonly  afflicts  women, 
and  according  to  some  observers  assumes  the 
nature  of  hysterical  paroxysms  which  it  is 
impossible  for  the  victims  to  control.  It 
is  occasionally  an  accompaniment  of  nervous 
depression,  and  is  unquestionably  hereditary. 
Some  kleptomaniacs  are  attended  with  im- 
perative voices  that  bid  them  appropriate  the 
131 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

property  of  others.  A  kleptomaniac,  though 
perfectly  sane  in  every  other  direction,  fails 
to  recognize  the  gravity  of  his  weakness;  he 
impulsively  steals,  and  is  not  morally  respon- 
sible. A  thief  deliberately  steals,  and  is  ' 
morally  responsible.  The  distinction  be- 
tween the  two  is  sometimes  difficult  to  draw, 
and  depends  largely  on  the  mental  condition 
of  the  subject  and  the  neurotic  history  of  his 
family,  considered  in  connection  with  the 
character  and  value  of  the  articles  purloined 
and  the  circumstances  of  the  stealer. 

Thieves  desirous  of  reform,  and  klepto- 
maniacs, especially  if  young  or  appreciative 
of  the  seriousness  of  their  abnormal  propen- 
sity, are  curable  by  hypnotic  suggestion. 
The  following  cases  from  my  memorandum- 
book  illustrate  the  successful  treatment  of 
thievery  and  kleptomania : — 

A.   B.,   aged  seventeen,  who  had  been  a 
thief  for  five  years,  had  been  repeatedly  ar- 
132 


Kleptomania 

rested,  once  for  house-breaking,  and  was,  as 
he  expressed  it,  in  the  habit  of  "  swiping  '' 
whenever  a  good  chance  offered  itself,  came 
to  me  on  March  19th  and  begged  me  to  cure 
him  of  his  uncontrollable  propensity,  which 
he  was  sure  would  sooner  or  later  land  him 
in  a  felon's  cell.  After  considerable  diffi- 
culty I  succeeded  in  putting  him  in  a  state  of 
profound  lethargy,  and  then  gave  him  two 
suggestions,  each  repeated  three  times:  first, 
you  will  not  feel  the  inclination  to  steal  any 
more;  second,  you  will  not  steal  any  more. 
I  then  suggested  that  he  lived  in  a  country 
where  honesty  was  sure  to  succeed,  and  prom- 
ised a  bright  future  conditioned  entirely  by 
his  respect  for  the  property  of  his  neighbors. 
I  finally  said,  "  Lose  that  hang-dog,  guilty 
expression,  put  on  a  manly  bearing,  and  look 
everybody  straight  in  the  eye."  A  week 
later  my  light-fingered  young  friend  met  me 
with  a  frank  smile,  and,  looking  me  directly 
133 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

in  the  eye,  said,  "  Doctor,  you  didn't  put  me 
to  sleep  last  Sunday,  but  it's  very  funny, 
I  haven't  had  any  temptation  to  swipe  things 
since."  It  is  not  uncommon  for  hypnotized 
patients  to  say  that  they  have  not  been  asleep 
at  all.  This  boy  was  profoundly  lethargic 
for  twenty  minutes,  and  I  had  considerable 
difficulty  in  arousing  him. 

The  next  case,  Stella  Bradford,  aged  thir- 
teen, was  brought  to  my  office  on  May  11th 
by  her  Sunday-school  teacher,  to  be  treated 
for  kleptomania.  She  was  subject  to  sudden 
and  uncontrollable  impulses  to  steal,  without 
regard  to  any  possible  use  she  could  make  of 
the  appropriated  articles,  which  she  did  not 
even  take  the  trouble  to  conceal.  She  sim- 
ply stole  for  the  love  of  stealing,  and  lied  to 
excite  attention  and  secure  admiration.  Her 
brothers  and  sisters  are  all  normal  in  their 
propensities.  Her  mother  is  an  unusually 
pious  woman,  but  shortly  before  Stella's  birth 
134 


Kleptomania 

received  a  shock  in  the  drowning  of  a  beauti- 
ful boj,  which  appears  to  have  brought  her 
to  the  verge  of  insanity,  as  she  was  delirious 
for  six  weeks  thereafter.  In  striving  to  ac- 
count for  the  moral  obliquity  of  Stella,  I 
have  inquired  minutely  into  the  attitude  of 
the  mother  toward  Providence  in  her  afflic- 
tion. If  it  had  been  one  of  rebellion,  I  might 
thus  explain  the  moral  defect  in  Stella.  A 
friend  has  investigated  the  case  with  the  fol- 
lowing result:  Stella's  mother  did  not  know 
that  a  child  might  be  expected  until  after 
the  shock  of  the  drowning  of  her  little  boy. 
When  asked  if  she  could  ascertain  what  the 
character  of  her  delirium  was,  she  said  that 
too  long  a  time  had  elapsed  for  her  to  recall 
particulars.  Her  old  doctor  is  dead,  but  he 
told  her  at  the  end  of  the  delirium  that  she 
would  probably  have  trouble  with  the  ex- 
pected child  if  it  should  survive.  The  moth- 
er said  that  she  felt  no  anger  at  the  time, 
135 


Hypnotism   in  Culture 

only  intense  sorrow.  Her  whole  character 
is  strong,  but  acceptant  of  the  many  vicissi- 
tudes of  her  lot  with  resignation.  Undoubt- 
edlj  the  prenatal  shock  has  a  bearing  on 
Stella's  present  condition. 

The  child  was  hypnotized,  and  told  (de- 
structively) that  she  would  not  lie  nor  steal, 
nor  feel  any  further  desire  so  to  do.  The 
fear  suggestion  was  to  the  effect  that  thieves 
and  liars  are  hateful  to  upright  human  be- 
ings and  to  God,  and  that  the  penalty  for  in- 
dulging in  falsehood  and  pilfering  is  ostra- 
cism from  respectable  society  and  the  incur- 
rence of  the  divine  displeasure.  The  con- 
structive treatment  or  building  force  was 
imparted  in  the  additional  suggestion  that 
she  was  going  to  be  loved  and  respected  botb 
by  her  friends  and  the  Almighty  for  her  hon- 
esty and  truth,  her  devotion  to  her  school- 
work,  and  her  cheerful  service  in  the  house- 
hold. 

136 


Kleptomania 

On  May  15th  her  godmother  brought  Stella 
again  to  my  office,  with  the  report  that  she  had 
made  no  attempt  at  pilfering  since  our  first 
interview,  returned  the  correct  change  when 
sent  on  errands,  and  had  excited  the  surprise 
of  the  home  circle  by  her  respectful  demeanor 
and  her  loss  of  what  were  designated  "  pouty 
fits."  She  was  hypnotized  a  second  time, 
and  the  original  suggestions  were  emphati- 
cally repeated.  Her  godmother  reported  as 
follows  on  May  ISth :  ^^  According  to  promise, 
I  send  a  few  additional  particulars  in  the 
case  of  Stella.  On  leaving  your  house  on 
Monday  morning,  I  thought  I  would  try  the 
effect  of  a  fairly  long  walk.  Stella  talked 
pleasantly  and  quietly,  but  with  once  or  twice 
a  little  verbal  embroidery,  which  I  appeared 
not  to  hear.  There  Avas  no  nervousness  nor 
excitement.  After  reaching  home  I  sent  her 
for  a  bag  of  sea-salt,  in  order  to  secure  her 
absence  while  I  explained  to  her  mother 
137 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

jour  directions  as  to  kind  treatment  and  en- 
tire oblivion  as  to  past  error.  The  whole 
family  have  rather  noticeable  small  dark 
eyes,  with  a  peculiar  expression  which  would 
lead  to  distrust  if  one  did  not  know  their 
hard-working  and  industrious  lives.  I 
imagine  that  any  sudden  mental  shock  might 
produce  insanity  in  one  or  more  members  of 
this  family.  Shortly  after  reaching  home  on 
Monday,  Stella  expressed  a  wish  to  help  her 
mother  by  earning  some  money,  and  is  now 
out  at  service.  Before  she  left  the  house, 
her  mother  warned  her  solemnly,  and  Stella 
said,  ^  I'll  never  take  anything  again,  mam- 
ma.' So  the  intention  is  right  if  the  will 
continues  strong  enough  to  hold  to  it." 
Here  the  suggestion  that  she  was  going  to  be 
useful  to  her  mother  was  objectively  carried 
by  Stella  far  beyond  my  intentions  or  even 
thoughts. 

I  hypnotized   this   interesting   little   girl 
138 


Kleptomania 

three  days  later,  assured  her  that  she  was 
going  to  be  respected  for  her  goodness  and 
truth,  that  she  would  grow  into  a  woman 
whom  everybody  would  love  (by  no  means 
a  stretch  of  the  imagination,  for  Stella  has 
many  admirable  qualities,  and  is  to  be  classed 
in  the  category  of  "lovely  sinners"),  and 
that  she  would  not  take  a  thing  that  did  not 
belong  to  her  until  she  saw  me  again  in  Oc- 
tober. I  then  bade  her  good-bye.  A  letter 
from  her  godmother,  dated  July  11th,  is  ex- 
ceedingly gratifying.  The  sister  that  has 
charge  of  Stella  pronounces  her  "  all  right." 
To  quote  the  godmother^s  words : 

"  Last  Saturday  our  Sunday-school  picnic 
took  place,  and  Stella  was  quite  in  evidence 
by  9  A.M.  And  I  must  say  that  all  day  she 
showed  in  a  most  favorable  light,  swinging 
the  little  children,  and  helping  in  every  way 
most  unselfishly.  I  was  able  to  treat  her 
with  all  my  former  cordiality,  and  not  once 
139 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

was  there  a  jarring  note.  I  hope  for  the 
best,  for  she  certainly  has  good  traits.'' 

A  second  letter  received  from  the  god- 
mother on  the  25th  of  February  indicates 
that  her  hopes  were  not  unfounded.  Stella 
has  continued  to  improve  morally,  and  has 
won  the  regard  of  those  about  her  by  her  lov- 
ing disposition  and  readiness  to  lend  a  help- 
ing hand.  A  commimication  from  the  lit- 
tle girl  herself  contains  this  statement :  ^^  I 
am  trying  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Christ, 
our  only  example.'' 

Other  thieves  and  kleptomaniacs  have  come 
under  my  notice,  or  my  services  have  been 
sought  to  effect  their  cure.  But  most  of  them 
have  been  unwilling  to  submit  to  treatment. 
I  know  a  serving  -  woman  whose  bureau- 
drawers  are  stuffed  with  stolen  napkins,  em- 
broidered doilies,  and  monogrammed  damask, 
for  which  she  has  no  possible  use.  She  has 
taken  them  by  the  dozen  from  families  who 
140 


Kleptomania 

have  employed  her  as  housekeeper,  and  she 
gloats  over  her  hoarded  linen  as  a  miser  over 
his  gold.     This  is  moral  insanity. 

I  also  knew  a  physician  of  prominence  who 
never  lost  an  opportunity  to  steal  from  the 
tables  of  his  hosts  articles  of  food,  which  he 
concealed  about  his  person  and  carried  off  to 
his  apartments.  This  gentleman  was  worth 
more  than  $100,000,  and  was  in  receipt  of 
a  generous  salary  besides  the  income  from  his 
fortune.  He  had  no  family  to  support,  and 
stole  food  simply  in  obedience  to  an  ungov- 
ernable impulse. 

The  following  representative  description  of 
a  kleptomaniac,  periodically  lucid,  was  writ- 
ten by  a  distressed  sister,  who  sought  in  vain 
to  place  the  subject  under  my  care : 

"  My  brother  is  a  bright,  apt  boy,  sensi- 
tive, tender-hearted,  and  very  susceptible  to 
gentle  persuasion.  He  is  generous  to  an  ex- 
treme, and  has  passing  moods  of  longing 
141 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

after  righteousness,  and  of  intense  agony  of 
spirit  which  are  really  piteous  to  behold.  At 
such  times  the  conviction  of  innate  depravity 
seems  to  fill  him  with  self-loathing  and  a 
strange  sort  of  self -terror;  and  I  have  seen 
him  fling  himself  on  the  floor  and  lie  there,  a 
writhing  piece  of  humanity,  moaning,  '  Oh, 
mother !  you  can't  help  me,  no  one  can  help 
me.     I  want  to  be  good,  but  I  can't,  I  can't.' 

"  But  there  are  also  other  times,  perhaps 
after  he  has  committed  some  theft  from  an 
employer  or  fellow-workman,  when  he  ap- 
pears to  be  thoroughly  hardened  and  indif- 
ferent, despite  all  our  efforts  to  make  him  re- 
alize the  gravity  of  his  offence.  In  every  in- 
stance, whether  he  is  likely  to  benefit  hy  it  or 
not,  his  direct  impulse  is  to  use  deceit  rather 
than  straightforwardness.  Falsehood  is  to 
him  as  truth.  He  stoops  to  the  meanest 
thefts,  with  no  other  motive  than  to  obtain 
money  to  squander  with  the  most  shocking 
142 


Kleptomania 

recklessness.  On  one  occasion  he  crept  at 
night  into  the  room  of  a  poor,  hard-working 
colored  student  who  had  befriended  him,  and 
took  ten  dollars  from  the  man's  pocket — his 
last  cent.  At  a  subsequent  time  he  induced 
one  girl  friend  to  lend  him  her  gold  ring,  and 
another  her  handsome  gold  watch,  a  family 
heirloom;  then  pawned  both  articles  and 
threw  the  tickets  away.  Some  five  years  ago 
he  got  into  trouble  with  a  prominent  book 
concern  through  dishonest  dealings  in  his  can- 
vassing; and  within  a  few  months  he  col- 
lected a  large  sum  of  money  under  pretence 
of  being  an  agent  for  Success.  He  is  also 
a  religious  hypocrite,  and  plays  the  role  of  an 
evangelist,  meeting  with  amazing  success  in 
his  efforts  to  collect  funds. 

'^  Do  you  think  there  is  any  hope  for  such 
a  character  ?     The  divine  is  there,  but  its 
sparks  are  so  faint  that  I  fear  there  is  actual- 
ly no  foundation  for  you  to  build  on." 
H3 


Hypnotism  in    Culture 

In  every  case  of  kleptomania  that  has  come 
under  my  observation,  the  propensity  to  lie 
has  been  associated  with  the  impulse  to  steal. 
It  would  seem  naturally  impossible  for  these 
subjects  to  tell  the  truth;  and  where  hered- 
ity can  be  traced,  it  will  usually  be  found 
that  the  parent  who  has  transmitted  the 
mania  is  a  double  offender.  The  family  his- 
tory of  a  kleptomaniac  girl  in  whose  behalf 
I  have  just  been  consulted,  interestingly  il- 
lustrates this  point.  The  patient^s  grand- 
father was  a  morphinomaniac.  Her  father, 
who  was  highly  educated,  was  born  with  a 
propensity  to  steal,  and  did  steal,  against  his 
better  impulses  and  very  will.  He  stole  be- 
cause he  could  not  help  it,  and  lied  for  the 
same  reason.  Haunted  by  the  conviction  of 
liis  infirmity,  and  with  the  consciousness  that 
he  could  not  overcome  it,  he  finally  became  in- 
sane. His  twelve-year-old  daughter,  a  sweet, 
sensitive,  and  extremely  nervous  child,  has 
144 


Kleptomania 

inherited  the  father's  failings,  although  oth- 
erwise mentally  normal.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  this  girl  may  be  obliqued  from  running 
her  father's  foil  by  judicious  suggestion. 

From  what  has  been  said  in  this  chapter, 
it  is  clear  that  kleptomaniacs  are  no  more  re- 
sponsible for  their  acts  than  other  insane  per- 
sons. The  medico-legal  bearing  of  this  fact 
should  not  be  lost  sight  of  in  trials  for  grand 
or  petty  larceny.  Expert  testimony  may  sep- 
arate the  irresponsible  kleptomaniac  from  the 
responsible  thief,  and  thus  save  innocent  per- 
sons from  the  disgrace  that  attaches  to  the 
punishment  of  criminals. 


DISEQUILIBRATION.OR  MEN- 
TAL UNBALANCE :  MORAL 
ANAESTHESIA 


DISEQUILIBRATION,OR  MEN- 
TAL UNBALANCE  :  MORAL 
ANAESTHESIA 

MANY  persons  are  born  with  unbal- 
anced minds  or  minds  in  dissym- 
metry, one  group  of  faculties  developed  at  the 
expense  of  another  group,  a  single  talent  or 
aptitude  monopolizing  almost  the  entire  out- 
put of  mental  energy.  Remarkable  pre- 
cocity of  certain  intellectual  powers  accom- 
panied with  arrested  development  of  others — 
one-sided  gifts  or  knacks — mark  this  condi- 
tion. As  Pope  wrote,  "  Good  or  bad  to  one 
extreme  betrays  the  unbalanced  mind."  The 
restoration  to  equilibrium  of  such  asym- 
149 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

metric  minds  may  be  accomplished  by  appro- 
priate hypnotic  suggestion. 

A  recent  experiment  of  the  writer's  estab- 
lishes the  fact  that  disequilibration  may  be 
adjusted;  a  congenital  cerebral  deficiency 
overcome;  a  personality  crippled  by  thought 
inhibition,  mental  apathy,  and  defective  at- 
tention transformed  into  a  personality  with- 
out a  blot  upon  the  brain,  and  so  impending 
insanity  shunted — by  the  use  of  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion as  an  educational  agency.  In  Octo- 
ber, 1899,  he  accepted  for  experimental  work 
the  case  of  a  Russian  Hebrew  boy,  George 
Rubin,  known  to  his  school-fellows  as  "  Crazy 
George,"  and  to  the  newspapers  as  the  music- 
mad  boy-genius  of  Brooklyn.  An  examina- 
tion showed  at  once  that  young  Rubin  occu- 
pied the  neutral  ground  which  divides  the 
sane  from  the  insane.  lie  exhibited  many  of 
the  prodromata  of  madness,  viz.,  exagger- 
ated irritability,  sullenness,  preternatural 
150 


Disequilibration 

suspicion,  accompanied  with  a  slowness  of  all 
thought  processes,  great  difficulty  of  recol- 
lection, general  incoherence,  ill-timed  hilar- 
ity, lack  of  interest  both  in  amusement  and 
occupation,  aversion  to  the  society  of  other 
children,  absurd  fears,  hallucinations,  and 
night  terrors,  and  a  conspicuous  one-sided  at- 
tention pathologically  diminished  for  ordi- 
nary things,  but  morbidly  increased  for  mu- 
sic. His  one  passion  was  violin  playing ;  on 
this  subject  he  was  a  monomaniac.  Experts 
had  pronounced  him  a  remarkable  performer, 
considering  his  age  and  his  opportunities. 
His  mother  denied  any  sexual  aberration. 

This  patient  was  brought  to  me  for  a  solu- 
tion of  the  question.  Can  approaching  in- 
sanity or  congenital  mental  unbalance  be  suc- 
cessfully treated  by  hypnotism?  I  confess 
it  was  with  considerable  misgiving  that  I  took 
in  hand  this  vicious,  intractable,  headstrong, 
contrary,  and  in  every  way  untoward  child- 
151 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

genius — an  intellectual  quadroon  with  one 
molecule  in  four  of  normal  lecithin — and  he 
proved  to  be  the  most  difficult  subject  I  ever 
put  under  hypnotic  influence.  At  the  first 
interview  an  hour  was  occupied  in  inducing 
him  to  lie  quietly  upon  my  lounge.  Then 
his  restless  black  eyes  roved  from  the  car- 
nelian  held  before  them  to  the  volumes  in  the 
bookcases,  to  the  vases  of  Bohemian  glass  on 
the  mantel  and  the  pictures  on  the  wall.  As 
the  experiment  progressed,  his  gaze  sought 
the  red  stone  oftener  and  lingered  upon  it.  A 
silly  laugh  repeatedly  broke  the  spell ;  but  at 
the  end  of  the  second  hour  his  eyelids  closed, 
he  breathed  deeply,  and  entered  the  stage  of 
suggestibility.  During  these  two  hours  I 
talked  to  the  boy  in  a  low  and  soothing  tone, 
assuring  him  that  I  was  his  friend,  and  that  I 
would  remove  all  harassing  fears  from  his 
mind  and  put  it  in  a  condition  to  receive  the 
greatest  benefit  from  the  musical  instruction 
152 


Disequilibration 

that  would  be  provided.  At  the  second 
seance,  young  Rubin  was  hypnotized  in  one 
hour,  with  the  help  of  a  suspended  diamond, 
and  this  method  has  since  been  pursued  in  his 
case.  He  looks  at  the  gem  as  one  fascinated. 
The  earlier  suggestions  were  to  the  effect  that 
he  was  no  longer  nervous,  that  he  had  no  fear 
of  the  dark  or  of  phantom  rats,  that  he  would 
sleep  without  terrorizing  dreams.  The  post- 
hypnotic fulfilment  of  these  suggestions  indi- 
cated the  appropriateness  of  more  direct  edu- 
cational work.  The  temper  was  first  dealt 
with;  the  outbursts  of  passion  were  forbid- 
den, obedience  and  docility  were  inculcated. 
Then  at  a  subsequent  meeting  followed  the 
cultivation  of  the  attention  and  the  memory. 
A  most  gratifying  response  to  these  lessons 
suggested  the  development  of  the  reasoning 
powers,  and  the  automatic  mind  was  directed 
to  the  study  of  arithmetic  and  prepared  for 
its  successful  and  enthusiastic  pursuit.  A 
153 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

marked  character  change  has  certainly  been 
effected.  The  boy  is  now  docile,  obedient, 
and  happy.  The  tangled  faculties  have  been 
unravelled,  and  he  has  become  rational  and 
quick  of  comprehension,  has  acquired  powers 
of  observation,  concentration,  and  recollec- 
tion that  he  was  entirely  without  before  the 
first  treatment.  He  can  describe  and  narrate 
with  ease,  and  answer  questions  without  hes- 
itation. His  face  beams  with  an  intelligent 
expression  entirely  new  to  it,  and  his  interest 
in  his  surroundings  is  absorbing.  The  next 
philosophical  step  in  such  a  case  is  the  objec- 
tive development  of  the  musical  gift,  ac- 
companied with  a  weekly  hypnotic  treat- 
ment, having  in  view  a  compensatory  talent- 
building  in  the  line  of  any  deficiency  that 
may  be  detected. 

In  the  cases  of  disequilibration  that  have 
come  under  the  author's  notice,  the  aptitude 
present  to  an  excessive  degree  has  usually 
154 


Disequilibration 

been  musical ;  in  two  instances,  it  was  math- 
ematical. Unbalanced  musical  or  math- 
ematical aptitude  is  likely  to  be  accompanied 
with  moral  anaesthesia  more  or  less  profound. 
To  rouse  the  patient  from  his  moral  sleep  de- 
mands ingenuous  sympathy,  supreme  tact, 
unremitting  eifort,  tireless  patience,  and  a 
white  life  on  the  part  of  the  operator.  The 
impulses  of  a  hypnotized  person,  even  if  a 
moral  idiot,  are,  as  a  rule,  good;  and  if  he 
detects  a  flaw  in  the  character  of  his  sugges- 
tionist,  hypnotization  will  have  been  in  vain. 
Uncompromising  loyalty  to  the  moral  law, 
read  by  the  inthralled  soul  in  the  mind  of 
his  hypnotist,  and  recognized  as  the  main- 
spring of  the  power  that  can  lift  him  from 
the  slime-pits  of  vicious  indulgence,  is  an 
indispensable  condition. 

Three  degrees  of  moral  insensibility  are  il- 
lustrated in  the  following  cases,  the  first  of 
which  was  radically  cured  in  a  short  time, 
155 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

the  second  perceptibly  improved  from  the  be- 
ginning, and  the  third  only  after  repeated 
trials. 

Case  1,  Merrill  B.,  illustrates  temporary 
insensibility  to  the  sacredness  of  sex,  accom- 
panied with  objective  indulgence  of  the  per- 
version, which  is  as  uncontrollable  either  by 
child  or  adult  as  rubeola  or  typhoid  fever. 
In  this  single  line  was  the  patient,  a  math- 
ematical genius,  morally  diseased.  The 
young  man  in  question  came  to  Xew  York 
chaste  from  a  IN^ew  England  city,  but  was 
soon  corrupted  by  women  of  the  street  until 
promiscuous  concubinage  became  a  passion 
with  him.  I  devoted  four  consecutive  Sun- 
day afternoons  to  his  case,  in  the  hope  of  re- 
moving sensual  standards  and  constructing 
moral  ideas  through  suggestion.  The  patient 
was  hypnotized  and  told  to  avoid  all  allure- 
ment. He  was  instructed  to  resist  solicita- 
tion on  the  streets,  and  assured  that  his  in- 
156 


Disequilibration 

tellect  was  in  control  and  that  his  animal  nat- 
ure was  subject  to  it.  The  thought  of  hon- 
orable marriage  with  a  pure  woman,  who 
would  be  in  sympathy  with  his  aims  and  help 
him  in  his  life  work,  was  made  to  take  the 
place  of  a  mania  for  consorting  with  im- 
proper companions.  Worthy  ambitions  were 
suggested,  assurance  that  he  could  master  the 
studies  he  was  pursuing  at  Cooper  Institute, 
and  would  develop  intellectually  along  the 
lines  he  had  chosen  —  with  the  result  of 
awakening  a  superior  interest  in  his  books, 
and  clothing  him  with  ability  to  overcome  the 
difficulties  of  higher  arithmetic  and  geom- 
etry. The  patient  was  thoroughly  torpid, 
remembered  nothing  of  the  conversation,  and 
waked  up  at  the  word,  dizzy  and  temporarily 
confused. 

Between  April  2d  and  April  9th,  the  dates 
of  the  second  and  the  third  hypnotism,  he  did 
not  yield  to  the  solicitations  of  women  who 
157 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

accosted  him,  and  began  to  feel  a  loathing  for 
their  society.  The  efficacy  of  auto-suggestion 
was  then  explained  to  him,  and  he  practised 
it  as  a  supplementary  procedure.  On  April 
9th,  he  was  hypnotized  for  the  third  time  and 
told  that  he  would  care  for  such  characters 
no  longer,  and  would  never  again  respond  to 
their  approaches.  The  possibilities  of  his 
career  as  an  electrician  were  then  unfolded 
to  him,  and  special  emphasis  was  laid  upon 
the  fact  that  sensual  indulgence  and  the  at- 
tainment of  intellectual  successes  were  incom- 
patible ;  that  he  was  sure  of  the  second,  and 
would  not  stoop  to  the  first.  He  was  further 
assured  that  he  need  have  no  fears  of  future 
temptations. 

On  April  IGth,  the  patient  reported  that 
he  had  experienced  a  strange  feeling  of  am- 
bition entirely  new  to  him,  that  he  had  given 
no  thought  to  evil  companionships,  but  that 
his  whole  mind  was  focussed  on  his  mathe- 
158 


Moral  Imbecility 

matical  studies,  and  he  spent  his  spare  time 
in  solving  difficult  problems.  He  was  hyp- 
notized a  fourth  time,  and  urged  strongly  to 
renewed  application.  The  other  suggestions 
were  repeated,  and  he  was  discharged  cured. 
W.,  a  young  man  of  twenty,  began,  at  the 
age  of  fourteen,  to  smoke  cigarettes  and  ex- 
hibit symptoms  of  moral  degeneracy.  He 
rapidly  developed  a  tendency  to  lie,  and  to 
steal  from  his  mother's  parlor  articles  of 
vertu  and  pawn  them,  in  order  to  equip  him- 
self financially  for  gambling  and  for  consort- 
ing with  tankerwomen.  His  mind  had  be- 
come noticeably  enfeebled,  especially  his 
memory  and  power  of  association,  and  he 
was  indolent  to  an  extreme,  resigning  posi- 
tions as  fast  as  they  were  secured  for  him,  or 
conducting  himself  with  such  indifference 
as  to  compel  his  discharge.  The  first  weak- 
ness attacked  was  his  licentiousness,  and  this 
was  promptly  removed,  so  that  he  thought 
159 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

no  more  of  loose  female  companions  and  saw 
life  differently,  realizing  his  subliminal  view 
of  it  from  the  higher  plane  of  chastity  and 
conjugal  fidelity  to  be  wholesome.  He  next 
acquired  frankness,  tact,  and  powers  of  ap- 
plication, and  his  attention  was  directed  to  a 
business  life  in  the  commercial  world.  His 
report  a  few  days  later  was  to  the  effect  that 
he  was  anxious  to  secure  employment  at  once, 
and  that  "  going  round  doing  nothing  is 
getting  very  tiresome.'^  The  cigarette  habit 
finally  received  attention,  and  during  the 
week  after  the  first  treatment  he  felt  con- 
strained to  reduce  the  number  of  cigarettes 
from  ten  to  five  a  day,  and  on  Saturday  he 
forgot  all  about  smoking  until  ten  o'clock  at 
night.  He  was  hypnotized  the  fourth  time 
at  the  end  of  the  third  week,  and  told  that  he 
was  now  face  to  face  with  his  career,  that  he 
was  entering  upon  it  with  nerve  and  confi- 
dence, and  with  a  resolution  to  be  known 
i6o 


Moral  Imbecility 

for  his  good  common-sense  and  sterling  in- 
tegrity —  that  all  his  sins  and  weaknesses 
were  prejudicial  to  his  standing  and  were 
abandoned^  especially  the  cigarette  habit, 
and  that  his  motto  now  was,  "  Forget  the  past, 
conquer  the  future;  do  not  allow  it  to  con- 
quer you."  This  was  emphatically  repeated 
three  times,  and  there  has  been  no  occasion 
since  to  resume  treatment. 

The  case  just  narrated  is  one  of  moral 
collapse  reclaimable  by  apposite  suggestion. 
The  following  is  a  case  of  congenital  moral 
destitution  with  marked  musical  talent — 
which  I  regarded  for  a  long  time  as  hopeless, 
but  which  finally  responded  to  compulsory 
hypnotism,  and  lost  its  darkness  in  a  moral 
sunrise.  Philetas  M.,  aged  twenty-one — an 
adept  in  all  kinds  of  deviltry;  a  cigarette 
fiend;  an  incorrigible  liar,unblushingly  deny- 
ing scarce-cold  crimes  with  the  proofs  of  their 
commission  in  our  very  hands,  and  constant- 
L  i6i 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

ly  deceiving  his  parents  with  rotten-hearted 
promises;  a  borrower  of  money  under  false 
pretences,  and  an  out-and-out  thief  for  whom 
jail  had  no  terrors;  a  gambler;  a  profligate 
ready  to  pawn  the  clothes  on  his  back  at  the 
bidding  of  town-dowdies;  a  trencher-knight 
of  the  sublions  of  the  Tenderloin;  with 
crippled  powers  of  application  except  in  the 
line  of  his  musical  gifts,  and  without  sense 
of  responsibility,  or  care  for  the  consequences 
of  evil-doing — this  young  man,  born  of  par- 
ents of  the  highest  respectability  and  intel- 
lectual attainments,  represented,  when  first 
introduced  to  me,  a  perfect  type  of  the  moral 
malkin.  There  seemed  to  be  nothing  in 
his  soul  to  appeal  to,  and  he  laughed  the 
hollow  laugh  of  moral  bankruptcy. 

As  this  subject  was  deliberately  resistant, 

all  ordinary  methods  of  hypnotization  failed, 

so  that  I  yielded  to  the  mother's  request  and 

resorted  to  compulsory  hypnotism.    Xo  matter 

162 


Moral  Imbecility 

how  refractory  or  nervous  the  patient  may 
be,  to  this  he  is  obliged  to  respond  (p.  253) 
The  general  tenor  of  the  suggestions  given 
to  our  young  delinquent  was  as  follows: 
"  Your  better  self  condemns  your  course. 
You  can  no  longer  afford  to  prejudice  your 
standing  with  God  and  man.  You  cannot 
consort  with  impure  women,  nor  take  other 
men's  goods,  nor  speak  untruths ;  but  you  will 
now  be  known  for  your  chastity  and  conti- 
nence, your  integrity,  and  your  truthfulness.'' 
The  fear  thought  dwelt  upon  was  this: 
"  There  is  but  one  ending  to  the  life  you  are 
leading — the  prison  cell.  Do  you  accept  it  ? 
'No.  There  is  but  one  outcome  of  an  appren- 
ticeship to  debauchery  —  physical  disease, 
moral  contagion,  spiritual  death.  Do  you 
accept  this?  ^o.  Will  you  be  a  self-mur- 
derer? No.  Will  you  by  polluting  any 
woman  make  your  mother  and  your  sisters 
sharers  in  the  consequences  of  your  act  ? 
163 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

Will  you  cast  such  a  reproach  on  the  pure 
souls  that  are  wrapped  up  in  your  remaining 
chaste  and  upright  and  honorable  ?  You  can- 
not. You  dare  not.  Arouse,  then,  to  a  true 
sense  of  your  position,  of  the  enormity  of 
your  sin,  of  its  relationship  to  your  future, 
which  will  be  in  the  line  of  your  choice  and 
actions  in  this  world.  You  have  no  further 
love  for  the  false  life  you  have  led.  You 
loathe  it.  You  have  turned  from  it,  and  are 
seeking  a  worthy  service  with  wholesome 
ambitions  and  aspirations.  It  shall  be  your 
highest  happiness  to  make  your  parents  hap- 
py, not  only  by  an  affectionate  regard  for 
their  wishes,  but  by  walking  in  the  ways 
which  they  approve.  And  you  are  going  to 
refine  your  nature  forthwith,  and  develop 
your  aesthetic  brain  organs,  and  thus  increase 
your  general  receptivity,  by  the  study  of 
music,  for  which  you  have  great  natural  apti- 
tude." 

164 


Moral   Imbecility 

After  the  first  treatment,  the  patient's 
mother  reported  that  he  seemed  more  quiet 
and  thoughtful,  that  there  certainly  had 
been  an  awakening  of  his  moral  nature.  "  It 
may  be  slight,  but  there  is  a  responsiveness 
about  him  that  we  have  not  known  before. 
Last  evening  he  went  to  church  in  all  the 
storm.  His  father  went  first,  and  after  try- 
ing to  read  for  a  bit,  he  said,  suddenly,  ^  I  am 
going  to  church.'  You  may  imagine  my  de- 
light !  How  he  would  act  under  temptation 
is  yet  to  be  seen.'' 

After  the  second  treatment,  the  report 
was  that  his  manner  was  unnaturally  sub- 
dued; that  there  was,  even  in  ordinary  con- 
versations, more  to  which  one  may  appeal; 
and  that  he  had  asked  for  no  money  to  buy 
cigarettes. 

The  effects  of  the  third  treatment  were 
much  more  decided.  The  patient  was  notice- 
ably amiable,  tractable,  considerate,  oblig- 
165 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

ing,  and  frank  in  his  admissions.  He  was  con- 
tented to  remain  in  the  house,  and  displayed 
an  affection  for  his  mother  and  father  never 
before  kno^\Ti,  accompanying  them  to  a  con- 
cert, anticipating  their  wants,  and  exhibiting 
a  courtesy  utterly  at  variance  with  his  pre- 
vious bearing.  He  devoted  from  three  to  seven 
hours  daily  to  his  music,  and  seemed  to  have 
abandoned  his  evil  ways.  Then  came  a  dis- 
couraging relapse,  followed  by  a  quick  rally. 

The  fourth  treatment  was  followed  by  the 
immediate  disappearance  of  all  bad  traits, 
and  the  fifth  by  a  strange  awakening  of  slmn- 
bering  ambitions.  The  young  man  could  not 
be  restrained  from  coming  to  ISJ'ew  York  and 
entering  upon  a  business  career. 

This  case  of  Philetas  M.,  who  has  always 
been  a  mystery  to  his  parents  and  friends, 
is  fraught  with  great  interest,  for  it  proves 
that  there  is  hope  in  the  most  profound  moral 
lethargy. 

1 66 


HYPNOTIC  SUGGESTION  IN 
THE  TREATMENT  OF  SPEECH 
DEFECTS 


HYPNOTIC  SUGGESTION  IN 
THE  TREATMENT  OF  SPEECH 
DEFECTS 

FU:NrCTIO:N'AL  disorders  of  utterance, 
like  stammering,  stuttering,  lisping, 
and  temporary  loss  of  speech  from  nervous 
shock,  are  appropriate  conditions  for  hyp- 
notic treatment. 

The  musical  instrument  with  which  we 
speak  and  sing  is  formed  of  two  elastic  mem- 
branes known  as  the  vocal  cords  stretched 
side  by  side  across  a  short  tubular  box,  the 
larynx,  placed  on  the  top  of  the  windpipe. 
Voice  is  due  to  the  vibration  of  these  vocal 
cords  set  in  motion  by  air  forced  from  the 
lungs  by  the  muscles  of  respiration.  It  is 
169 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

modified  by  tlie  resonance  chambers  of  the 
chest  below  and  of  the  mouth  and  nose  above, 
and  is  converted  into  articulate  speech  by 
the  action  of  the  lips,  teeth,  tongue,  palate, 
and  jaws.  Vowel  sounds  are  produced  by 
simple  cord  vibration,  modified  by  the  dif- 
ferent sizes  and  shapes  assumed  by  the 
resonant  cavity  of  the  mouth;  consonantal 
sounds,  by  certain  adjustments  and  move- 
ments of  the  mouth  parts  above  the  larynx, 
amounting  in  some  instances  to  an  obstruc- 
tion or  cut-off  of  the  outgoing  air  in  the 
emission  of  voice  sounds. 

Inability  to  connect  consonants  with  suc- 
ceeding vowels  in  the  attempt  to  pronounce 
words — uncontrollable  spasmodic  repetition 
of  the  initial  sounds  of  the  words  it  is  desired 
to  utter — is  known  as  stuttering,  and  is  the 
most  common  of  all  speech  defects.  There 
is  no  error  in  articulation,  but  distinct  spasms 
of  the  muscles  of  phonation  give  rise  to  dis- 
170 


Speech  Defects 

jointed  utterances.  Speech  characterized  by 
involuntary  pauses  and  imperfect  articula- 
tion is  called  stammering.  A  stammerer 
experiences  difficulty  in  uttering  individual 
sounds;  a  stutterer,  in  making  syllabic  com- 
binations. The  person  who  stammers  is  per- 
plexed to  utter  anything,  and  describes  the 
retarded  words  as  sticking  in  his  throat. 
Overindulgence  in  alcoholic  beverages  was 
long  ago  recognized  as  a  cause  of  "  stam- 
m.ering  tongues  "  as  well  as  of  "  staggering 
feet.''  The  person  who  stutters  produces 
sounds,  even  if  they  are  not  the  ones  he  de- 
sires to  produce,  and  frequently  has  recourse 
to  other  words  than  those  he  vainly  attempts 
to  utter. 

Confusion,  diffidence,  timidity,  and  an  hys- 
terical nature  are  active  causes  of  stuttering, 
which  is  increased  by  mental  excitement  until 
it  becomes  painfully  embarrassing.  Stam- 
mering, on  the  contrary,  particularly  if  it 
171 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

be  due  to  irregular  contractions  of  the  dia- 
phragm, often  disappears  under  the  stress  of 
emotional  agitation  or  exhilaration.  A  stam- 
mering patient  tells  me  that  in  cultivating  a 
new  acquaintance  she  is  able  to  disguise  for 
a  while,  under  the  novel  conditions,  her  mor- 
tifying weakness. 

In  habitual  stammering  there  are  likely 
to  be  malformations  of  the  articulating  or- 
gans (short  tongue,  tongue-tie),  that  inter- 
fere with  the  pronunciation  of  certain 
sounds;  but  this  is  exceptional  in  stuttering, 
which,  however,  is  often  hereditary. 

Both  stammering  and  stuttering  are  affec- 
tions of  overstrained,  undernourished,  and 
anoemic  children,  boys  being  more  susceptible 
than  girls  in  the  proportion  of  four  to  one. 
Both  argue  some  defect  in  the  central  ner- 
vous system,  and  both  are  classed  among  the 
physical  stigmata  of  degeneration.  The  con- 
tour of  skull  and  the  dejected  expression  in 
172 


Speech  Defects 

many  stutterers  suggest  the  degenerate.  Ex- 
treme mental  depression  not  uncommonly 
accompanies  these  defects,  and  some  patients 
confess  to  me  the  continual  presence  of  sui- 
cidal thoughts. 

These  two  functional  speech  defects,  par- 
ticularly if  they  represent  contracted  habits, 
result  from  mimicry  or  association  with  oth- 
ers who  stutter  or  stammer,  are  subject  to  in- 
termissions,* or  are  due  to  nervousness,  ex- 
pectation of  failure,  watchfulness  for  the 
dreaded  letters  or  words — are  remediable  by 
hypnotism.  The  treatment  consists  in  es- 
tablishing the  patient^s  confidence  in  his  abil- 
ity to  utter,  first  a  few,  and  gradually  all 
perplexing  syllables  or  consonants.  Rela- 
tives and  friends  should  be  warned  against 


*  The  author  numbers  among  his  patients  a  neu- 
rotic woman  who  stammers  distressingly  for  several 
days  in  succession,  and  then  for  an  equal  number  of 
days  speaks  with  grace  and  fluency. 

173 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

permitting  ridicule  of  the  unfortunate,  as 
objective  moral  influences  play  an  important 
role  among  the  agencies  of  cure.  Thought- 
less companions  are  too  apt  to  assume  the 
part  of  persifleur. 

My  first  case  of  stuttering  was  a  young 
man  who  asked  to  be  treated  for  the  cigarette 
habit.  J^oticing  that  the  boy  became  easily 
confused  and  stammered  badly,  I  gave  him 
the  suggestion  that  blushing  and  stammer- 
ing, as  well  as  addiction  to  cigarettes,  w^ould 
interfere  with  his  success  in  business,  that 
he  would  go  manfully  up  to  his  employer  and 
talk  without  involuntary  breaks  in  his 
speech;  and  I  told  him  on  awakening  to  ad- 
dress me  without  any  hesitancy — which  to 
my  delight  he  did.  I  have  not  heard  him 
stammer  since,  and  the  boys  who  associate 
with  him  say  that  he  has  gotten  bravely  over 
it. 

A  college  lecturer  on  music  applied  to  me 
174 


Speech   Defects 

in  June  with  the  following  history :  He  expe- 
rienced great  difficulty  in  pronouncing  the 
lingual-frictional  s^  and  the  explosives  d  and 
g,  normally  sounded  by  the  sudden  imposi- 
tion and  withdrawal  of  voice  obstruction.  In 
public  speaking  he  found  himself  constantly 
on  the  watch  for  words  beginning  with  these 
letters;  and  he  was  haunted  with  the  fear 
of  failing  before  an  audience  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  his  professional  duties  were  serious- 
ly interfered  with.  He  had  become  patho- 
logically self-conscious.  His  English  also 
was  rendered  impure  by  reason  of  the  con- 
stant necessity  of  resorting  to  inexact  substi- 
tutes for  the  impossible  words  and  phrases. 
This  patient  was  hypnotized  and  directed  to 
speak  without  hesitancy,  and  to  use  graceful 
and  melodious  language  which  his  musical 
sense  would  approve.  The  suggestion  was 
given  that  his  automatic  mind  was  now  ap- 
prised of  the  breach  of  principle  in  the 
175 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

mechanism  of  phonation,  and  in  control  of 
the  out-go  of  nervous  energy  concerned  in 
the  causation  of  the  voice-producing  blast; 
that  this  flow  would  be  full  and  strong  and 
sustained;  that  he  need  therefore  no  longer 
be  on  the  watch  for  words  beginning  with  d, 
g,  and  s;  that  he  could  not  afford  to  stammer, 
and  that  he  would  address  me  without  stam- 
mering when  I  awakened  him.  This  he  did 
to  my  entire  satisfaction. 

This  case  is  paralleled  by  that  of  a  lad 
who,  when  requested  recently  to  read  a  page 
in  my  reception-room,  was  unable  to  utter  an 
audible  sound.  His  mother,  who  accom- 
pained  him,  had  done  his  talking  for  years, 
and  thus  he  had  learned  to  depend  on  her  for 
escape  from  embarrassing  positions.  After 
the  first  hypnotism  this  boy  spoke  for  thirty- 
six  hours  as  well  as  the  average  youth.  He 
then  began  to  relapse.  A  study  of  the  situa- 
tion satisfied  me  that  the  relapse  Avas  due  to 
176 


Speech  Defects 

the  nervous  anxiety  of  his  mother  and  her  ill- 
timed  assistance.  Above  all  things,  a  stam- 
merer must  learn  automatically  to  depend  on 
himself;  any  interference  on  the  part  of  a 
third  person  negatives  the  suggestion.  Re- 
ferred to  a  military  school  at  some  distance 
from  his  home,  where  he  has  been  under  the 
care  of  intelligent  teachers  whom  I  made 
acquainted  with  the  necessities  of  the  case, 
this  youth  rapidly  recovered  the  use  of  his 
speech.  When  he  came  home  for  the  Christ- 
mas vacation,  to  quote  from  his  mother's  let- 
ter, "  he  talked  with  no  hesitancy  at  all." 
'Not  only  so.  In  response  to  my  suggestions 
that  he  would  take  interest  in  his  studies  and 
apply  himself  diligently,  he  achieved  high 
rank  at  the  school.  "  His  reports,"  his  moth- 
er writes,  "  have  been  surprisingly  satisfac- 
tory. He  has  kept  his  record  up  to  the  high- 
est right  along,  and  at  the  end  of  the  term  in 
December  he  stood  fourth  from  the  head  of 

M  177 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

the  entire  school  of  over  fifty  boys.''  This 
youth  has  since  been  made  an  officer  in  the 
school,  and  is  quick  and  fluent  in  using  the 
language  of  command. 

A  gentleman  who  has  long  suffered  from 
the  limitations  which  stammering  places 
upon  one's  usefulness,  has,  in  sending  his 
application  for  treatment,  written  the  follow- 
ing masterly  analysis  of  his  case,  which  I 
transcribe  from  his  letter  for  the  interest  and 
instruction  of  all  persons  similarly  afflicted. 
"  In  my  o^vn  case,"  he  says,  "  there  is  not 
the  slightest  organic  defect,  for  at  times  I 
can  talk  as  fluently  as  any  one.  Stammering 
is  with  me  the  result  of  spasmodic  action  of 
the  diaphragm  and  glottis,  produced  by  a 
mental  condition.  I  have  always  believed 
that  if  I  could  only  be  relieved  of  the  con- 
sciousness that  I  had  ever  stammered,  I 
would  stammer  no  longer.  Will-power  is  in- 
effective to  control  the  habit,  for  back  of  all 
178 


Speech  Defects 

determination  not  to  stammer  is  a  latent 
consciousness  that  I  am  powerless  to  combat 
the  fear  which  through  long  continuance  has 
become  a  part  of  me.  In  my  opinion,  a 
stammerer  is  to  a  great  extent  self-hjpno- 
tized.  For  instance,  the  fear  that  I  shall 
stammer  in  the  attempt  to  utter  a  certain 
word — an  impression  confirmed  by  the  con- 
sciousness that  I  have  always  done  so — 
makes  it  wholly  impossible  for  me  at  times 
to  pronounce  that  word.  This  self-sugges- 
tion renders  it  just  as  impossible  for  me  to 
utter  certain  sounds  as  does  the  suggestion  of 
a  hypnotist  prevent  a  subject  from  bending 
his  arm.  Then,  perhaps,  a  moment  after- 
ward when  the  necessity  for  speaking  the 
word  has  passed,  I  can  utter  it  as  fluently  as 
any  one.  This  leads  me  to  the  conclusion 
that  if  I  could  be  hypnotized  and  given  a 
powerful  counter-suggestion  to  the  effect  that 
I  had  never  stammered  and  could  not  staiii- 
179 


Hypnotism  in    Culture 

mer  even  if  I  tried,  the  result  would  be  that 
I  should  speak  naturally  and  without  im- 
pediment." 

This  patient  has  struck  the  key-note  of  the 
difficulty.  Auto  -  suggestion  is  unquestion- 
ably the  cause  of  stammering  and  stuttering 
in  many  adults.  Kepeated  objective  experi- 
ences of  failure  to  enunciate  ^x  deeply  in  the 
subliminal  self,  by  cumulative  impression, 
an  idea  of  the  difficulty  or  impossibility  of 
enunciating.  The  subliminal  self  so  im- 
pressed transmits  the  suggestion  to  the  ob- 
jective self,  and  the  fatal  habit  becomes  con- 
firmed. Hypnotism  is  certainly  the  most 
reasonable  method  of  attempting  a  cure. 


IMPERATIVE  IDEAS,  DELU- 
SIONS, MELANCHOLIA,  IN- 
SANITY, AND  LOSS  OF  MEM- 
ORY AS  CONDITIONS  AMEN- 
ABLE TO  HYPNOTIC  TREAT- 
MENT 


IMPERATIVE  IDEAS,  DELU- 
SIONS, MELANCHOLIA,  IN- 
SANITY, AND  LOSS  OF  MEM- 
ORY AS  CONDITIONS  AMEN- 
ABLE TO  HYPNOTIC  TREAT- 
MENT 

A  DELUSION  is  a  fixed  misconception, 
a  mental  deception  or  error.  If  per- 
manent, it  becomes  a  pathological  inaccura- 
cy of  judgment,  and  equivalents  insanity. 
Thus  there  are  delusions  of  the  sane  and  de- 
lusions of  the  insane.  The  former  are  re- 
movable by  hypnotic  suggestion,  as  are  also 
imperative  ideas,  which  are  recognized  as 
morbid  by  the  subject,  but  cannot  be  sup- 
pressed by  effort  of  will.  Delusions  take  the 
183 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

form  of  homicidal  and  suicidal  impulses; 
of  remorse  for  supposed  unpardonable  sins; 
of  morbid  fears  or  apprehensions;  of  unlaw- 
ful infatuations;  of  hauntings  by  phantoms, 
persecutors,  vile  words,  and  preposterous 
notions. 

Delusions  and  dominant  ideas  are  common- 
ly  associated  with  the  condition  known  as 
neurasthenia,  a  depraved  state  of  the  nervous 
system  caused  by  malnutrition  of  the  nerve 
and  brain  elements.  Although  not  an  Amer- 
ican affection  in  its  origin,  neurasthenia  is 
peculiarly  American  in  its  distribution — the 
rush  and  tear  and  overwork,  the  emotional 
excitement  connected  with  failure  and  suc- 
cess, the  slavery  to  social  obligations  and 
pleasures,  so  characteristic  of  American 
women,  sufficiently  accounting  for  its  wide- 
spread existence  in  this  country.  American 
fashionable  and  business  life  is  a  continuous 
nerve-storm.     !N'or  again  is  it  peculiarly  the 


Imperative   Ideas 

rich  man^s  disease,  for  it  afflicts  as  frequently 
the  poorer  classes,  on  whom  fall  so  heavily 
the  burdens  incident  to  battle  with  the  world. 
It  is  prevalent  among  the  agricultural  popu- 
lation, especially  as  a  sequel  of  grippe  or  in- 
fluenza, of  typhoid  and  of  the  zymotic  dis- 
eases generally  (toxic  neurasthenia),  and 
in  its  climacteric  phase  with  women  of  the 
working  -  class,  broken  down  by  a  life  -  long 
domestic  service  or  by  excessive  child-bearing 
and  lactation.  The  symptoms  are  generally 
misunderstood,  and  the  condition  is  improp- 
erly treated  or  regarded  with  suspicion, 
indifference,  or  ridicule.  It  is  not  my 
purpose  to  dwell  upon  the  symptoms  of  neu- 
rasthenia —  the  para3sthesias  and  hyperaes- 
thesias ;  the  asthenopia  and  atonic  voice ;  the 
deficient  thirst  (all  neurasthenics  are  hydro- 
phobiacs,  with  dessicated  nerves)  ;  the  consti- 
pation and  fermentative  dyspepsia,  with  their 
accompanying  intoxications;  the  oxaluria 
185 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

and  uricacidaemia ;  the  vertigoes  and  helmet 
headaches;  the  loss  of  vaso-motor  tone;  the 
sensitiveness  to  noises,  vibrations,  and  jars 
engendered  by  existence  in  a  land  of  electric 
and  steam  cars,  of  jostling  crowds,  clanging 
factories,  and  crowded  streets  and  stores; 
the  intractable  sleeplessness;  the  agonizing 
tension,  as  if  under  some  frightful  brain 
pressure;  the  sickening  oppression  about  the 
prsecordia  (]praecordialangst).  We  are  inter- 
ested for  the  time  being  only  in  the  morbid 
fears,  especially  monophobia  (fear  of  soli- 
tude) and  anthropophobia  (fear  of  society)  ; 
the  dread  of  responsibilty ;  the  indecision  and 
folie  du  doute;  the  fixed  conviction  of  incom- 
petence and  uselessness;  and  the  delusional 
mental  state  with  its  imperative  conceptions. 
I  need  hardly  picture  the  climax  of  the  con- 
dition, at  which  faith  and  hope  and  love  are, 
as  Milton  said,  turned  to  hell;  at  which 
Christian  principle  at  last  relaxes  its  hold  on 
1 86 


Delusions 

the  tortured  soul,  and  the  sufferer  of  woes 
indescribable  buries  his  agony  in  a  self- 
sought  grave. 

A  nerve-cell  is  a  cell-bod j  under  control 
of  a  nucleus  and  provided  with  branches  or 
processes,  the  principal  one  of  which,  regard- 
ed as  the  true  outgro\\1:h  of  the  cell,  is  called 
a  neuro7i.  It  is  the  seat  of  ceaseless  metabol- 
ic change,  conditioning  the  replenishment  of 
the  contained  phosphorus-bearing  substances 
that  represent  so  much  stored  or  potential 
nerve  energy,  and  that  are  transformed  and 
consumed  in  the  evolution  of  such  energy. 

Physiologists  believe  that  the  passage  of 
nerve  impulses  alters  the  osmotic  powers  of 
the  cell  wall  toward  the  surrounding  plasma, 
and  that  by  endosmosis  and  exosmosis  the 
nutritive  exchange  takes  place.  The  dense 
network  of  capillaries  environing  the  cells 
indicates  that  they  are  the  centres  of  this 
nutritive  metabolism.  In  neurasthenia,  not 
187 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

only  are  nutritive  properties  of  the  cell-en- 
circling plasma  altered  by  auto-intoxication, 
the  poison  of  infectious  diseases,  or  by  al- 
coholism, cocainism,  morphinism,  etc.,  but  in 
some  instances,  through  the  action  of  the 
same  causes,  the  cells  appear  measurably  to 
have  lost  the  power  to  appropriate  what  lim- 
ited amount  of  nourishment  may  be  present. 
In  either  case,  the  cell-bodies  are  more  or  less 
starved  and  their  energy-projecting  powers 
correspondingly  impaired. 

IN"©  doubt  the  commonest  cause  of  the  cell- 
exhaustion  and  consequent  impoverishment 
of  nerve  force  that  explain  nervous  prostra- 
tion— the  cause  of  the  cause  of  neurasthenia 
— is  the  intemperate  exercise  of  the  intellect- 
ual faculties  and  the  excessive  indulgence 
of  the  emotions  and  passions.  I  believe 
emotional  unrest  to  be  a  far  more  prolific 
cause  than  overwork  dissociated  from  irrita- 
tion and  anxiety.  The  greater  number  of 
1 88 


Melancholia 

neurasthenics  are  unmarried  persons,  the 
operative  cause  in  single  men  being  the  ex- 
citements connected  with  sexual  and  alcoholic 
excesses  and  with  gambling ;  in  single  women, 
the  harassing  struggle  for  bread. 

In  some  ill-understood  manner,  all  such 
abuses  and  irregularities  produce  cell-degen- 
erating toxines  not  apparent  to  the  micro- 
scope or  appreciable  bj  chemical  analysis. 
Whatever,  by  prolonged  or  excessive  action, 
enfeebles  the  system,  must  exhaust  the  cell- 
bodies  faster  than  they  can  reproduce  them- 
selves. A  sufficient  amount  of  nutritive  ma- 
terial is  not  floated  to  the  centres  of  abnormal 
cell-activity  to  compensate  for  the  extra  de- 
mand made  upon  them,  nor  are  the  waste 
products  removed  as  speedily  as  is  consistent 
with  health  and  safety.  And  what  are  the 
results  ?    Malnutrition  and  auto-intoxication. 

AVhen  we  exercise  our  muscles  merely  for 
the  sake  of  pleasure,  the  amusement  is  called 
189 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

play.  When  we  similarly  exercise  eye  and 
ear,  the  amusement  is  known  as  aesthetic  feel- 
ing. The  first  is  active ;  the  second,  passive. 
In  each  case,  pleasure  accompanies  the  ac- 
tivity of  well-nourished  and  underworked 
organs.  On  this  principle  human  health  and 
happiness  hang — well-nourished  and  under- 
worked cells — a  normal  amount  of  activity 
in  the  terminal  nerve-organs  of  the  cerebro- 
spinal nervous  system.  But  let  certain 
nerves  be  called  upon  to  perform  an  excess 
of  work,  and  painful  feeling  results,  ^ote 
the  effect  of  dynamo-generated  electric  light 
upon  the  eye.  Those  who  use  incandescent 
lamps  for  reading  may  refer  the  massive  pain 
and  feeling  of  irritation  in  the  eyeball  that 
follows  an  evening's  work,  to  the  impercep- 
tible unsteadiness  in  the  white-hot  filament 
of  carbon.  This  light  really  pulsates — rises 
and  falls  with  the  passage  of  each  commuta- 
tor-bar under  the  brushes  in  the  dynamo. 
190 


Melancholia 

If  the  engine  be  slowed  down,  the  fluctuations 
become  visible;  but  whether  they  are  con- 
sciously appreciated  or  not,  the  nerve-fibres 
in  the  retina  must  certainly  respond,  and  the 
eyes  become  wearied;  because,  although  the 
optic  fibres  are  renewed  seventeen  times  a 
second  in  order  that  we  may  learn  so  much 
and  so  unremittingly  of  the  world  about  us, 
the  destructive  metamorphosis  here  is  in  ex- 
cess of  repair.  In  like  manner,  in  all  normal 
cerebral  and  nervous  activity,  we  have  con- 
stantly induced  partial  fatigues,  followed  by 
partial  stimulations.  In  over  -  use,  the  re- 
parative processes  are  distanced  by  destruc- 
tive metamorphosis ;  nutritive  regeneration  is 
unable  fully  to  restore  the  wasted  substance 
of  the  nerve-organs;  and  where  the  hours  of 
sleep  are  invaded  to  meet  the  demands  of  a 
growing  business  or  an  imperious  ambition, 
those  nerve-organs  measurably  lose  the  power 
of  regeneration  and  become  incapacitated  for 
191 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

the  fulfilment  of  their  functions.  Hence 
the  morbid  impulse  to  ingest  more  food  than 
can  be  oxidized ;  hence  the  phosphaturia  and 
uricacidaemia,  the  indigestion,  and  the  neu- 
rasthenic liver.  These  are  plainly  the  ef- 
fects of  nerve  starvation,  not  the  origin  of 
it;  and  here  the  mistake  is  made  by  many 
practitioners  who  treat  merely  the  symptoms, 
forgetful  to  remove  the  causes  that  give  rise 
to  the  symptoms.  The  nerve  exhaustion  pri- 
marily acts  to  produce  the  oxaluria,  uric- 
acidaemia,  gastric  and  intestinal  dyspepsia, 
prostatic  neuroses,  irritable  and  depressing 
sexual  functions,  muscular  insufficiencies  of 
the  eyes  and  general  asthenopia,  praecordial- 
angst,  insomnia,  and  cardiac  break-down; 
and  these  results  react  as  causes  to  perpetuate 
the  nerve  exhaustion.  In  neurasthenia,  ef- 
fects immediately  assume  the  role  of  causes, 
and  hence  the  danger  of  error  in  treating  the 
disease. 

192 


Insanity 

The  mind  of  the  neurasthenic  grows  weak 
and  irritable ;  morbid  fears  take  possession  of 
it;  hallucinations  and  delusions  are  en- 
throned, because  the  brain  cells  are  deficient 
in  healthy  lecithin,  their  normal  phosphorus- 
bearing  substance,  and  hence  lack  capacity 
for  estimating  at  their  true  worth  fugitive 
impressions  and  symptoms.  There  is  a  dis- 
tinct line  of  demarcation  between  this  state 
and  permanent  mental  disease  or  defect.  A 
neurasthenic  patient  can  be  argued  into  the 
admission  that  his  fears  or  imperative  ideas 
are  without  foundation,  and  are  to  a  certain 
extent  controllable,  although  he  may  not  be 
able  to  dispel  them.  An  insane  patient  ac- 
cepts his  delusion  as  a  reality,  and  cannot  be 
persuaded  that  it  is  baseless.  The  former,  if 
properly  dealt  with,  may  in  the  great  major- 
ity of  cases  be  restored  to  healthy  mentation 
and  made  a  useful  and  happy  member  of  so- 
ciety again.  But  if  not  treated  with  expedi- 
N  193 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

tion  and  judgment,  mere  neurasthenic  delu- 
sions are  likely  to  become  fixed  insane  de- 
lusions. 

The  natural  tendency  of  the  sufferer  from 
neurasthenia  to  unfold  his  case  to  every  one 
who  can  be  induced  to  listen  to  his  story  indi- 
cates the  treatment  that  is  natural.  The  de- 
pressed mind  is  but  asking  for  sympathy  and 
hopeful  assurances  which,  if  repeated  suf- 
ficiently often,  acts  as  does  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion in  capturing  the  subliminal  self."^^  The 
desired  cure  is  thus  effected  through  mental 


*  The  writer  has  always  considered  association 
with  well  persons  an  important  feature'  in  the  treat- 
ment of  neurasthenia.  The  ordinary  invalid  should 
never  be  placed  in  a  sanatorium  or  treated  as  the 
inmate  of  an  institution,  but  he  should  keep  in 
touch  with  normal  life,  whether  stationary  or  trav- 
elling, and,  above  all,  he  should  be  surrounded  by 
cheerful  company,  under  the  influence  of  friends, 
preferably  not  members  of  his  family,  who  are  capa- 
ble of  using  judgment  in  dispensing  their  good  of- 
fices. 

194 


Insanity 

action.  For  this  reason  a  neurasthenic 
craves  frequent  interviews  with  his  physi- 
cian; he  instinctively  seeks  the  nervous  re- 
inforcement that  encouraging  constructions 
of  his  symptoms  and  reiterated  promises  of 
recovery  impart  through  the  medium  of  sug- 
gestion. 

A  delusion  may  sometimes  be  removed  by 
a  single  hypnotization.  In  September,  1898, 
I  was  consulted  by  a  lady  who  was  tormented 
by  the  constant  thought  that  she  was  going 
to  be  insane.  Although  there  were  positively 
no  symptoms  of  insanity,  and  no  reasons 
whatever  for  its  occurrence,  the  patient  could 
not  be  convinced  that  her  suspicions  were  un- 
founded. She  was  accordingly  hypnotized 
and  told  emphatically  that  she  was  not  in- 
sane, could  not  become  insane,  but  was  enter- 
ing upon  the  happiest  period  of  her  married 
life ;  and  she  was  assured  that  she  would  find 
a  pleasure  in  existence  that  she  had  not 
195 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

known  before.    From  that  day  to  this  the  de- 
lusion has  never  returned. 

A  most  interesting  case  in  which  the  whole 
bent  of  thought  gave  way  to  a  single  treat- 
ment was  that  of  a  gentleman  with  the  fol- 
lowing history:  He  was  born,  by  reason  of 
some  prenatal  impression,  with  a  horror 
of  a  mutilated  face.  He  married  a  beauti- 
ful, spiritually  minded  w^oman;  but  as  he 
did  not  accept  the  theory  of  immortality,  he 
desired  to  enjoy  as  much  as  possible  of  her 
physical  comeliness  in  this  life,  and  was  ac- 
customed to  contemplate  her  profile  with  deep 
pleasure.  Eighteen  months  ago  the  lady  met 
with  an  accident  which  scarred  her  face; 
and  although  he  had  consulted  the  leading 
surgeons  and  electricians,  none  was  able  to 
repair  the  damage  to  his  satisfaction,  and  he 
had  become  a  monomaniac  on  the  subject. 
Whenever  he  looked  into  a  woman's  face, 
he  saw  his  wife's  blemished  features  before 
196 


Loss  of  Memory 

him;  when  he  attempted  to  read,  his  wife^s 
disfigured  face  came  between  him  and  the 
book;  he  walked  the  streets  at  night,  vainly 
trying  to  rid  himself  of  the  abnormal  idea; 
and  finally  he  had  fled  from  his  wife's  side, 
in  the  hope  that  separation  might  put  an  end 
to  his  sufferings.  But  wherever  he  went, 
and  whatever  he  did,  the  painful  apparition 
of  that  bruised  face  would  dog  him ;  his  men- 
tal powers  were  beginning  to  flag,  his  memory 
to  fail,  and  he  finally  applied  to  me  for  relief 
through  hypnotic  channels.  Of  course  I 
asked  at  once  to  see  his  wife,  and  when  she 
came  to  my  office  I  found  that  the  defect  was 
grossly  exaggerated.  The  husband  was  hyp- 
notized, and  the  destructive  suggestion  given 
that  his  wife's  face  was  not  marred,  that  he 
would  no  longer  see  it  in  a  state  of  mutila- 
tion. The  constructive  suggestion  mini- 
mized the  importance  of  the  physical  condition 
and  emphasized  the  beauty  of  character,  and 
197 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

the  husband  was  directed  to  love  exclusively 
the  moral  and  intellectual  perfections  of  his 
.wife.  He  was  told  that  she  could  appreciate 
such  love  as  few  women  could  (not  an  exag- 
geration), that  he  was  greatly  blessed  in  his 
union  with  a  woman  of  such  superior  mental 
parts,  and  he  was  assured  that  he  would  be 
happy  with  her  as  never  before,  because  his 
happiness  would  henceforth  be  based  on  a 
more  exalted  regard  than  mere  admiration  of 
physical  charms.  Three  days  later  my  pa- 
tient called  and  stated  that  he  had  found  a 
new  and  unexpected  pleasure  in  companion- 
ship with  his  wife,  that  the  disfigured  face 
no  longer  haunted  him,  and  that  he  was  hap- 
pier than  he  had  been  for  years. 

Other  persons  who  have  been  referred  to 
me  for  treatment  suffered  from  delusions  of 
having  committed  the  unpardonable  sin, 
homicidal  and  suicidal  monomanias,  convic- 
tions  of   inability   to   perform   simple    acts 


Imagination 

like  boarding  a  street-car  or  reaching  after  a 
desired  object,  apparently  due  to  a  severance 
of  connection  between  motor  impulses  and 
the  channels  of  discharge.  Among  my  pa- 
tients have  been  persons  apparently  well 
who  could  not  cross  the  threshold  and  go  out 
into  the  street,  who  could  not  wash  and  dress 
themselves,  who  were  the  victims  of  imagi- 
nary love  affairs,  who  could  not  fulfil  literary 
contracts  because  of  inhibitory  influences 
difficult  to  explain  from  a  mere  psychological 
stand-point.  The  subject  is  often  aware  that 
the  imperative  notions  are  morbid,  that  he  is 
the  dupe  of  delusions,  and  that  they  must 
ultimately  land  him  in  Queer  Street,  but 
he  cannot  control  them.  He  may  be  of  amia- 
ble disposition,  and  yet  be  haunted  with  an 
impulse  to  pick  up  a  hatchet  and  kill  some- 
body. I  have  such  a  case  at  present;  the 
patient,  who  contracted  the  diseased  inclina- 
tion from  reading  of  a  similar  case  in  a  news- 
199 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

paper,  recognizes  the  wrongness  of  it,  and  is 
able  to  resist  it,  but  it  has  so  far  taken  pos- 
session of  his  mind  as  to  render  him  unable  to 
discharge  his  duties  as  book-keeper.  To 
quote  a  sufferer's  words :  "  When  a  person 
cannot  face  a  fellow-being  without  such  ter- 
rible manifestations  of  guilt,  hatred,  and 
weakness  depicted  upon  his  face,  when  at 
heart  he  is  innocent  and  nobly  inclined,  his 
very  soul  revolts  within  him  " ;  and  yet  he 
is  constrained  to  entertain  the  unwelcome 
impulse. 

It  is  not  unusual  for  nervously  depressed 
subjects  to  imagine  that  they  have  incurred 
the  enmity  of  some  one  who  is  pursuing  them 
with  demoniacal  intent,  or  to  figure  as  the 
victims  of  morbid  and  sometimes  laughable 
fears.  An  engineer,  otherwise  rational,  told 
me  that  his  left  eye  is  affected  as  the  result 
of  a  slight  injury  received  three  years  ago, 
and  he  believes  he  is  going  to  be  blind,  al- 
200 


rmagination 

though  assured  by  oculists  that  his  eyes  are 
normal  and  his  vision  is  perfect.  It  is  his 
habit  to  carry  a  vest-pocket  mirror  with  which 
to  examine  the  suspected  pupil  at  every  con- 
venient opportunity.  "  Without  my  mir- 
ror/' he  said,  ^^  I  could  not  attend  to  my  busi- 
ness; and  if  deprived  of  it  for  a  length  of 
time,  I  should  go  insane.''  A  single  treat- 
ment removed  the  delusion.  An  engraver 
reported  that  his  nose  turned  red  whenever 
he  went  out  into  the  air.  The  imaginary 
annoyance  rendered  him  so  miserable  that 
he  could  not  attend  to  his  work,  and  in  con- 
sequence meditated  suicide.  A  third  ap- 
plicant for  relief  is  harried  by  a  dread  of 
excessive  salivary  secretion.  A  few  years 
ago  he  contracted  catarrh,  began  to  worry 
about  breathing  dust  into  his  throat,  and 
formed  the  habit  of  expectorating  freely  in 
order  to  expel  offending  particles  that  were 
supposed    to    be    present.      His    mind    has 

201 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

dwelt  so  persistently  on  the  necessity  of 
constantly  spitting  that  the  salivary  glands 
have  become  excessively  sensitive  to  the  ex- 
aggerated demands  made  upon  the  secreting 
tubules.  Thought  of  the  infirmity  induces 
its  immediate  manifestation,  and  always  on 
occasions  most  inopportune.  The  ever-pres- 
ent fear  that  the  mouth  will  fill  with  water 
which  must  be  swallowed  or  ejected  has  re- 
duced this  subject  to  the  condition  of  a 
nervous  bankrupt,  dead  alike  to  the  calls  of 
pleasure  and  the  demands  of  ambition. 

A  lady  who  was  referred  to  me  for  treat- 
ment by  a  well-known  'New  York  surgeon 
imagined  that  a  lemon-pit  had  lodged  four 
years  before  in  a  pocket  which  had  formed  in 
her  throat  as  the  result  of  diphtheria,  that 
the  pit  went  to  pieces  but  the  hull  remained 
to  be  disintegrated,  and  that  the  "  granulated 
pieces  ''  moved  up  and  down  in  some  mythical 
canal  toward  her  ear  and  into  the  post-nasal 
202 


Imagination 

space.  The  patient  could  not  be  argued  out 
of  the  delusion. 

A  man  now  under  mj  care  has  for  years 
been  afraid  that  some  calamity  will  befall 
him  if  left  alone,  and  hence  refuses  to  permit 
his  wife  to  go  out  of  his  sight.  He  follows 
her  about  like  a  timorous  child,  and  as  a 
result  has  wrecked  both  his  own  business  and 
hers.  The  central  cause  of  mental  disturb- 
ance is  the  morbid  fear  of  solitude  (mono- 
phobia). A  prominent  clergyman  who  sought 
advice,  having  suffered  several  times  from 
vertigo,  is  tortured  with  apprehension  lest 
an  attack  be  precipitated  while  he  is  in  the 
pulpit  and  a  scene  occur  in  his  church.  His 
usefulness  is  in  consequence  seriously  lim- 
ited. 

Another  patient  is  haunted  by  a  coarse 

word  which  she  saw  scribbled  on  some  fence. 

The  word  is  ever  on  her  tongue ;  it  has  become 

the  one  subject  of  her  waking  thoughts  and 

203 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

her  dreams,  and  she  is  tortured  by  the  fear 
that  she  may  lose  self-control,  utter  the  ob- 
scene expression  in  church  or  drawing-room, 
and  be  ostracized  in  consequence  as  a  vulgar 
harridan.  This  is  not  insanity;  it  is  likely 
to  be  the  portion  of  any  refined  human  being 
whose  brain  organs  are  overworked  and  are 
hence  pathologically  impressionable.  Noth- 
ing but  suggestion  can  immediately  remove 
such  impulses  or  fears,  and  restore  happiness 
to  a  crushed  life. 

Something  akin  to  the  last  condition,  a 
not  infrequent  accompaniment  of  nervous 
prostration,  is  the  hearing  of  sinister  voices 
that  bid  the  commission  of  horrifying  acts, 
call  vile  names  as  if  through  a  mental  tele- 
phone, dictate  terrifying  messages,  or  doom 
to  a  wretched  death.  In  vain  the  possessed 
mind  strives  to  throw  off  the  delusion ;  drugs 
are  of  no  avail,  madness  or  suicide  impends. 
Hallucinations  of  hearing,  if  allowed  to  per- 
204 


Infatuation 

sist,  tend  ultimately  to  become  ineradicable. 
A  nervous  woman  recently  found  her  way  to 
my  oiRce  pursued  by  the  audible  voices  of 
imaginary  persecutors  calling  in  her  ears, 
"  You  are  a  sirloin  steak !  You  are  a  sirloin 
steak!"  "If  this  keeps  on/'  she  said,  ''I 
shall  come  to  believe  it."  Permanent  mis- 
conception is  insanity. 

Infatuation  is  a  form  of  delusion  the  sug- 
gestionist  is  often  called  upon  to  treat. 
Young  girls  are  not  infrequently  betrayed 
into  an  extravagant  passion  for  men  whom 
it  is  not  lawful  for  them  to  marry ;  and  many 
a  man  has  been  freed  by  hypnotism  from  a 
foolish  but  uncontrollable  feeling  for  a  wom- 
an other  than  his  wife.  The  following  is  a 
representative  case:  A  young  married  wom- 
an, the  mother  of  several  children,  wrote  me 
in  September  last  that  her  husband  had  be- 
come infatuated  with  a  girl  neighbor  of 
eighteen,  and  was  conducting  himself  in  so 
20; 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

disloyal  a  manner  that  she  contemplated 
suicide.  His  passion  was  beyond  the  control 
of  his  reason,  and  yet  he  evidently  desired  to 
be  freed  from  it.  Its  object,  a  personal 
friend  of  his  wife^s,  resented  his  attentions, 
and  had  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  his  perse- 
cution by  entering  a  convent,  he  having  ex- 
torted a  pledge  from  the  girl  that  she  would 
never  marry. 

Self -disgust  drove  the  man  to  my  office  in 
^N'ovember.  He  was  hypnotized,  and  five 
minutes  of  salutary  inspiration  switched  him 
from  the  road  to  ruin.  He  was  assured,  in 
the  face  of  his  apprehension  of  such  coward- 
ly and  criminal  behavior,  that  he  could  not 
ascend  the  stairs  leading  to  the  apartment 
of  his  inamorata,  that  he  would  in  future 
meet  her  only  as  a  passing  acquaintance.  A 
week  later,  the  wife  notified  me  that  the  sug- 
gestions had  been  effective,  and  that  all  was 
happy  again  in  their  home. 
206 


Mental  Aberration 

Little  is  known  as  yet  of  the  possibilities 
of  hypnotism  in  the  treatment  of  insanity 
with  fixed  delusions.  Whereas  organic  men- 
tal disease,  like  acute  mania,  epileptic  insan- 
ity, or  paresis,  is  not  amenable  to  the  power  of 
the  hypnotist,  incipient  insanity  certainly 
may  be  cured  if  taken  in  time  and  managed 
with  judgment.  Hallucinations  and  ex- 
aggerated worries  that  are  quite  sure,  unless 
removed,  to  gravitate  into  serious  mental  ab- 
erration may  be  held  in  abeyance  by  sugges- 
tive treatment  faithfully  repeated  until  the 
mind  regains  its  balance.  Asylums  for  the 
insane  are  filled  with  patients  of  the  might- 
have-been-saved-if-opportunely-treated  class. 

The  following  three  cases  of  serious  mental 
aberration  reflect  the  author's  limited  experi- 
ence with  true  insanity  and  monomania : — 

Letitia  "M.,  a  young  girl  of  twenty-two,  who 
three  years  before  had  consulted  clairvoy- 
ants regarding  a  love  affair  and  had  since 
207 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

been  haunted  by  clairvoyant  spectres  eight 
inches  in  length,  miniatures  of  well-known 
persons,  who  talked  to  her  incessantly  and 
muddled  her  brain,  was  taken  from  a  private 
asylum  where  she  had  been  treated  for  two 
years  without  results,  and  brought  to  my  office 
one  day  in  December,  1899.  Clairvoyant  de- 
mons accompanied  her  and  perched  them- 
selves on  the  picture-frames  and  bookcases 
in  mocking  attitudes.  I  seated  myself  op- 
posite the  girl,  took  her  hands  in  mine, 
and  ordered  her  to  look  into  my  eyes.  In 
five  minutes  she  was  asleep,  and  the  troubled 
mind  was  at  rest.  I  then  gave  her  the  sug- 
gestion that  I  had  frightened  the  figures 
away,  and  that  I  would  go  with  her  in  spirit 
and  keep  them  from  annoying  her.  Her 
aunt,  who  took  her  that  afternoon  to  !N'ew 
Haven,  reported  that  Letitia  was  natural  the 
remainder  of  the  day,  took  luncheon  at  one 
of  the  Xew  York  hotels,  and  was  perfectly 
208 


Mental  Aberration 

normal,  not  once  referring  to  clairvoyants 
between  11  a.m.  and  7  p.m.,  when  the  delu- 
sion began  to  return.  The  next  day  the  re- 
port was :  "  She  does  the  dishes,  helps  her 
sister  with  the  table,  and  takes  care  of  her 
bedroom,  but  when  she  has  any  time  to  her- 
self she  sits  down  in  a  rocking-chair  and 
throws  her  head  back  with  a  jerk,  looks  into 
a  corner,  and  keeps  talking  to  imaginary 
clairvoyants  and  they  to  her.  You  would 
think  she  would  jerk  her  head  off  the  way  she 
throws  it  about.  We  try  to  get  her  to  look 
at  pictures  or  books,  but  she  will  not  do  any- 
thing but  sit  in  the  chair  and  look  for  the 
clairvoyants." 

This  was  certainly  a  most  encouraging 
result,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  girl 
had  been  treated  by  experts  in  insanity  for 
two  years  with  no  improvement  of  her  symp- 
toms. After  the  second  treatment  a  con- 
trary spirit  developed,  and  she  acted  like  a 
o  209 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

stubborn  child,  refusing  to  take  the  brain 
food  that  had  been  prescribed.  ^^  She  de- 
clares that  the  doctor's  eyes  are  with  her,  and 
she  wants  to  keep  them  with  her,  for  then  she 
will  be  all  right.''  The  suggestion  had  been 
that  when  the  clairvoyants  sought  to  annoy 
her  she  would  see  my  eyes  and  find  in  them 
sympathy  and  strength.  All  this  was  favor- 
able, as  there  was  less  clairvoyant  and  more 
general  obstinacy.  Could  the  treatment 
have  been  continued,  I  am  constrained  to 
believe  Letitia  M.  might  have  become  sane 
on  the  clairvoyant  question.  Her  relatives, 
expecting  a  sudden  and  miraculous  cure,  tired 
of  bringing  her  to  !N^ew  York. 

The  second  case  was  that  of  Mrs.  B.,  who 
was  tormented  day  and  night  by  the  janitor 
of  the  apartment-house  in  which  she  lived. 
He  called  her  vile  names  through  an  imagi- 
nary telephone,  and  threatened  her  with  sick- 
ness and  death.     The  delusion  was  fixed ;  she 


Mental  Aberration 

could  not  be  reasoned  out  of  it.  Mrs.  B. 
was  easily  hypnotized,  and  told  that  the  tele- 
phone-wire was  cut,  and  that  her  tormentor 
could  therefore  no  longer  secure  access  to  her. 
She  left  my  office  on  three  separate  occasions 
greatly  elated  and  unattended  by  voices. 
The  suggestions  carried  for  thirty-six  hours, 
when  repairs  to  the  telephone-line  gave  her 
persecutor  opportunity  to  resume  his  exasper- 
ating communications.  In  this  and  in  the  pre- 
ceding case  the  suggestions  should  have  been 
renewed  the  moment  the  delusions  reappear- 
ed, and  persisted  in  on  this  principle  until 
a  satisfactory  experiment  had  been  made. 
My  expectation  would  be  that  the  intervals 
of  normrd  mentality  would  lengthen  until 
sanity  should  be  finally  established. 

The  third  case  is  the  most  interesting  of 
all,  because  it  teaches  what  may  be  accom- 
plished by  wholesome  treatment  of  this  kind, 
with  a  superlatively  discouraging  case,  in  the 

211 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

short  period  of  two  weeks.  Mrs.  E.,  aged 
thirty,  who  had  been  bred  in  an  atmosphere 
of  refinement  and  pietj  but  was  unhappily 
married  early  in  life,  became  degenerate, 
and  after  the  death  of  her  husband  had  re- 
turned to  her  family,  irascible,  noisy,  abusive, 
and  profane.  She  had  homicidal  mania 
coupled  with  sexual  perversion,  and  was 
drinking  a  pint  of  laudanum  a  day,  with  the 
usual  demoralizing  result.  On  December 
14th  I  was  sent  for  to  hypnotize  her  in  a  pri- 
vate hospital,  where  for  months  she  had  been 
watched  by  nurses  and  physicians  night  and 
day.  Pursuing  the  same  method  I  adopted 
with  Letitia  IL,  I  soon  succeeded  in  turning 
my  violent  patient  into  a  perfect  cataleptic, 
as  plastic  in  my  hands  as  wax.  The  sugges- 
tions given  had  reference  destructively  to  the 
banishment  of  all  compromising  thoughts, 
evil  words,  homicidal  tendencies,  and  person- 
al abuse;  constructively,  to  domestic  occupa- 

212 


Amnesia 

tions  and  personal  cleanliness.  The  resident 
physician  reported  on  the  day  following  that 
Mrs.  E.  had  been  very  quiet  for  three  hours 
after  treatment,  and  then  had  slept  for  seven 
hours.  The  following  day  she  was  quieter 
and  more  sensible  than  at  any  time  since  en- 
tering the  hospital,  with  strong  hopes  as  to 
her  recovery.  All  bad  habits  had  been  aban- 
doned. Twice  during  the  following  ten  days 
Mrs.  E.  was  brought  to  my  office,  and  the 
suggestions  were  emphatically  repeated.  The 
improvement  was  so  marked  that  her  brother 
insisted  that  she  should  visit  him  in  the  West, 
and  the  last  week  in  December  she  went  to 
Ohio  alone  in  a  Pullman  car,  remaining  per- 
fectly normal  in  transit.  The  only  bad 
symptom  that  persists  is  an  occasional  dis- 
play of  temper. 

In  certain  forms  of  amnesia,  or  loss  of 
memory,  things  which  the  objective  self  ap- 
pears absolutely  to  have  forgotten  may  bo 
213 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

recalled  by  the  suggestible  siibpersonal  self 
and  flashed  upon  the  waking  consciousness 
through  the  instrumentality  of  suggestion. 
Sudden  failure  of  memory,  loss  of  conscious- 
ness of  personal  identity,  may  result  from 
nervous  shock,  severe  illness,  or  extrinsic  poi- 
sons. A  lady  was  brought  to  my  office  in  June, 
1899,  suffering  from  acute  melancholia  and 
apparently  absolute  loss  of  memory,  as  the 
result  of  a  crushing  humiliation.  She  did 
not  know  who  she  was ;  she  failed  to  recognize 
her  children,  husband,  and  friends,  and  could 
not  call  them  by  name.  She  took  no  interest 
in  anything,  and  explained  her  condition  by 
stating  that  when  she  awoke  in  the  morning 
it  seemed  as  if  all  her  faculties  did  not  awake. 
Suggestions  were  given  to  this  patient  that 
she  would  and  did  know  herself  and  her  chil- 
dren, that  she  would  return  to  her  home 
and  call  them  by  name  that  afternoon,  and 
that  her  interest  in  her  surroundings  would 
214 


Amnesia 

be  revived.  On  awakening  her,  I  handed  her 
a  carnation,  which  she  accepted  with  a  smile, 
carried  to  her  nose,  and  admired  conspicuous- 
ly. She  told  me  who  she  was,  called  her  chil- 
dren by  name  that  very  day,  and  began  to 
busy  herself  about  household  duties,  display- 
ing her  old-time  skill  as  a  pastry  cook,  and 
her  interest  as  a  housewife.  All  this  aston- 
ished her  relatives,  for  she  had  sat  for  months 
like  a  demented  woman,  and  had  even  been 
treated  in  an  asylum  without  avail.  Since 
the  hypnotization  in  June,  her  memory  has 
gradually  returned.  Lapsed  experiences 
and  lost  self-recognition  are  thus  recoverable 
by  suggestive  treatment. 

Amnesia  has  many  causes.  When  perma- 
nent, it  marks  degeneration  of  the  brain ;  it  is 
often  an  accompaniment  of  senile  dementia. 
The  writer  has  been  asked  whether  such  de- 
mentia with  its  impending  amnesia  can  be 
aborted  by  suggestion. 
215 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

A  lady  upward  of  sixty  presented  herself 
in  the  autumn  of  1899,  oppressed  with  fears 
that  her  old  age,  like  that  of  her  mother, 
deceased  at  eighty-four,  would  be  character- 
ized by  senile  dementia,  which  she  knew  to 
be  hereditary — with  its  attendant  lessened 
mentality,  failure  of  memory,  impairment 
of  judgment  and  moral  feeling.  Her  mind 
had  so  long  and  so  constantly  fed  upon  such 
thoughts  that  her  automatic  self  had  accepted 
the  suggestion.  Indecision  was  marked, 
mother-wit  was  out  at  elbows,  interpretation 
of  duty  was  abnormal.  The  patient  asked 
that  her  mind  might  be  put  in  control  of 
those  organic  changes  in  the  brain  that  cause 
progressive  mental  enfeeblement.  Her  de- 
sire, as  she  expressed  it,  was  to  "  die  with 
dignity  " ;  and  the  perplexity  she  unwitting- 
ly proposed  to  me  for  disentanglement  was: 
How  far  can  a  mental  attitude  govern  the 
physical  health  of  the  brain  in  extreme  age, 
216 


Senile  Dementia 

and  predispose  to  a  death  by  euthanasia,  so 
pleasantly  alluded  to  by  the  psalmist  in  his 
injunction  to  "  Mark  the  perfect  man  and 
behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man 
is  peace  "  ?  Is  arterio-sclerosis  (thickening 
of  the  arterial  coats),  which  induces  the  fault 
of  brain  nutrition,  controllable  by  the  sub- 
liminal self?  This  subject  was  reduced  to 
a  condition  of  hypnosis  which  she  described 
as  a  state  of  partial  consciousness  accom- 
panied with  a  feeling  that  her  body  was  a 
pile  of  velvet.  The  suggestion  was  communi- 
cated that  she  would  die  by  inches,  would 
not  grow  old  an  object  of  pity  or  ridicule; 
but  that  the  arterial  channels  in  the  sub- 
stance of  the  brain  would  retain  their  normal 
diameters,  that  the  blood  currents  would 
flow  in  undiminished  strength  with  advanc- 
ing age,  and  hence  that  there  would  be  no 
failure  of  brain  nutrition,  and  she  would  in 
consequence  remain  in  possession  of  her 
217 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

faculties  and  enjoy  to  the  last  the  love  and 
respect  of  those  about  her.  These  sugges- 
tions were  given  at  the  request  of  the  pa- 
tient, a  phenomenally  intelligent  woman,  and 
they  will  be  repeated  as  many  times  per 
annum  as  opportunity  offers.  In  the  in- 
tervals, the  same  thoughts  will  often  be  self- 
suggested.  If  the  subliminal  self  can  be 
made  to  regulate  the  vital  processes  that  are 
taking  place  daily  in  the  living  body — the 
peristaltic  action  of  the  intestines,  the  diges- 
tive functions,  the  storing  of  fat  in  the 
cellulo  -  adipose  structures,  circulation,  in- 
nervation, ovulation  —  who  will  designate 
the  limit  of  control?  And  why  may  not  a 
determined  position  of  the  objective  mind, 
transferred  to  the  subjective  self,  abort,  by 
the  natural  action  of  that  secondary  self,  a 
threatened  organic  disease,  or  rob  old  age 
of  its  terrors  ?  Determination  never  to  ad- 
mit the  existence  of  a  suspected  degenerative 
218 


Senile  Dementia 

process  has  prolonged  many  a  life.  The 
philosophy  of  the  mental  operation  is  patent ; 
and  if  it  can  be  successfully  applied,  as  the 
writer  believes  it  can,  to  the  causes  of  that 
malnutrition  on  which  depends  senile  de- 
mentia, the  age  of  "  sweet  or  happy  dying/' 
as  the  Greeks  characterized  it  (evOavaaia)^ 
bids  fair  to  return.  Did  men  live  as  the 
Deity  has  prescribed  —  temperately,  un- 
selfishly, loving  their  neighbors  as  them- 
selves— there  would  be  known  no  other  kind 
of  death.  But  since  we  come  into  the  world 
burdened  with  an  inheritance  of  what  St. 
Paul  designated  a  tendency  to  fail  in  well- 
doing (dfiapTca)^  which  renders  it  difficult 
or  impossible  to  do  the  good  we  would, 
and  easy  to  do  the  evil  we  would  not,  as- 
suredly it  is  justifiable  to  combat  that  ten- 
dency with  its  accompanying  physical  drift 
toward  premature  cerebral  degeneration  by 
appeal  to  the  real  self  or  spiritual  part. 
219 


EDUCATIONAL  USE  OF  HYP- 
NOTIC SUGGESTION.  ITS 
VALUE  IN  THE  TRAINING 
OF  ERRATIC,  BACKWARD, 
AND  UNMANAGEABLE  CHIL- 
DREN 


EDUCATIONAL  USE  OF  HYP- 
NOTIC SUGGESTION.  ITS 
VALUE  IN  THE  TRAINING 
OF  ERRATIC,  BACKWARD, 
AND  UNMANAGEABLE  CHIL- 
DREN 

TACTFUL  suggestion  has  power  to  exalt 
the  intellectual  as  well  as  the  ethico- 
spiritual  nature.  The  development  of  mind 
is  no  less  an  hypnotic  possibility  than  the 
betterment  of  morals.  In  fact,  the  moral 
exaltation  characteristic  of  hypnosis  is  ac- 
companied with  a  rise  in  intellectual  dignity 
and  power.  Potential  is  converted  into  act- 
ual energy;  and  the  hypnotized  subject  de- 
lights in  the  consciousness  of  awakened 
223 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

susceptibility  and  command.  Differences  in- 
duced by  objective  education  are  obliterated ; 
and  the  fundamental  endowments  of  that 
finer  spiritual  organ  in  which  under  God  we 
have  our  highest  being — endowments  con- 
ferred by  Deity  on  all  human  souls  without 
favor  and  without  stint — dominate  the  in- 
tellectual life.  The  divine  image  is  supreme 
in  the  man,  and  creative  communication  on 
the  broadest  lines  and  the  most  exalted  planes 
becomes  possible.  Hypnotic  suggestion  is 
but  inspiration.  'Not  only  does  the  subject 
share  the  latent  knowdedge,  but  he  borrows 
as  well  the  mental  tone  of  the  operator.  His 
memory  becomes  preternaturally  impressible. 
The  principles  of  science,  of  language,  of 
music,  of  art,  are  quickly  appropriated  and 
permanently  retained  for  post-hypnotic  ex- 
pression through  appropriate  channels.  Con- 
fidence in  talent  is  acquired;  and  embarrass- 
ment, confusion,  all  admission  of  inferiority, 

224 


In  the  Training  of  Children 

are  banished  from  the  objective  life — by 
placing  the  superior  self  in  control. 

To  accomplish  his  part  in  the  work  of  in- 
tellectual uplift,  the  hjpnotizer  must  be  a 
person  of  liberal  education,  broad  views,  and 
pronounced  literary  and  scientific  convic- 
tions. He  must  be  a  sincere  believer  in  his 
own  suggestions.  Mental  reservation  is 
fatal.  ]^ebular  knowledge  is  of  little  avail. 
Tact,  patience,  and  erudition,  are  the  three 
factors  indispensable  to  success. 

The  experiments  of  the  author  in  creative 
communication  embrace  cases  of  backward 
and  erratic  children,  disequilibration,  voice 
culture,  the  development  of  musical  talent, 
and  the  inspiration  of  writers  and  actresses. 

Many  children  are  contrary,  disobedient, 
troublesome,  or  destructive  to  an  extreme. 
They  are  abnormally  ungovernable.  Kindly 
persuasive  measures,  the  line  upon  line,  pre- 
cept upon  precept  treatment,  are  alike  ineffi- 
p  225 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

cacious.  Cruel  corporal  puniskment  is  equal- 
ly impotent  to  accomplish  reform.  They  are 
helplessly  graceless  or  wicked  because  they 
have  come  into  the  world  under  the  spell  of 
some  heteroclite  impulse  which  compels  acts 
they  are  not  responsible  for.  In  some  in- 
stances the  tendency  is  distinctly  hereditary. 
I  have  been  asked  to  treat  a  boy  of  six  years 
who  is  afflicted  with  an  irresistible  passion  to 
hurl  stones  at  passers-by,  through  windows, 
into  carriages,  etc.  His  mother  at  a  corre- 
sponding age  exhibited  the  same  tendency  in 
an  exaggerated  degree.  The  son  cannot 
withhold  his  hand  so  long  as  a  stone  is  in 
sight.  He  is  deaf  alike  to  the  solicitations 
and  mandates  of  those  he  loves  with  all  the 
fulness  of  his  child's  heart.  He  must  per- 
force obey  the  resistless  inherited  prompting, 
and  is  happy  only  with  a  cobble  or  a  brick- 
bat in  his  hand.  He  is  without  will-power 
to  resist  the  instigation  of  his  disordered  sub- 
226 


In  the  Training  of  Children 

jective  self;  nor  can  that  will-power  be  cre- 
ated and  reinforced  by  the  ordinary  means 
employed  in  the  case  of  children  who  "  know 
better  "  and  yet  are  deliberate  wrong-doers. 
How  careful  are  parents  to  guard  a  child 
against  the  evils  of  heredity  in  physical  dis- 
ease. Why  should  they  not  be  equally  con- 
cerned to  discover  the  appropriate  treatment 
in  the  case  of  maladies  that  are  mental  or 
moral  in  their  nature  ?  Fear,  the  usual  agent 
of  reform,  is  assuredly  valueless.  Fear- 
thought,  so  far  as  the  control  of  sinners  hy 
force  of  birth  is  concerned,  but  invites  fail- 
ure. 

Other  children  are  chance  black  -  sheep, 
bearing  no  resemblance  in  their  unfortunate 
traits  to  parents,  grandparents,  or  remoter 
ancestors.  In  all  such  cases  of  inherited  or 
accidental  mental  deformity,  castigation  is 
the  remedy  of  fools.  As  well  whip  a  child 
for  multiple  fingers,  knock-knee,  or  spinal 
227 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

paralysis.  The  warped  mind  can  be  straight- 
ened and  strengthened  only  by  judicious  sug- 
gestion; there  is  no  other  known  instrumen- 
tality through  which  it  can  be  speedily  and 
permanently  modified. 

There  are  children  who  are  unnatural- 
ly stupid,  of  sluggish  intellect,  born  with- 
out the  ordinary  ability  to  concentrate 
thought  or  rivet  attention,  with  defective 
memories,  easily  confused,  embarrassingly 
self-conscious,  so  that  the  mind  becomes  a 
blank  under  the  pressure  of  a  necessity  for 
reflection,  or  if  thoughts  are  there,  the  vocal 
mechanism  refuses  to  express  them.  For 
these  conditions,  as  well  as  for  habitual  in- 
dolence, disinclination  to  exertion,  and  cow- 
ardice, hypnotism  is  the  philosophical  treat- 
ment. Where  medication,  moral  influences, 
institutional  discipline,  change  of  scene  and 
companionships,  are  of  no  avail,  carefully 
directed  suggestion  in  the  hypnotic  state,  if 
228 


i 


In  the  Training  of  Children 

confidently  persevered  in,  is,  humanly  speak- 
ing, sure  to  awaken  intellectual  perception, 
impart  mental  alertness,  improve  the  memory 
conditions,  and  substitute  self-reliance  for 
diffidence  and  timidity. 

A  troubled  mother  writes  to  inquire  wheth- 
er a  child  of  six  years  can  be  satisfactorily 
influenced  by  hypnotic  suggestion — "  a  sen- 
sitive, nervous,  high-strung,  exceedingly  af- 
fectionate boy,  but  cursed  with  a  painful 
lack  of  courage  in  his  contact  with  other  boys. 
This  leads  to  a  perpetual  persecution  by  his 
companions,  besides  being  in  itself  deplor- 
able inasmuch  as  it  is  a  trait  indicating  lack 
of  manliness.  By  nature  he  is  exceptionally 
truthful ;  but  at  times  I  suspect  this  supreme 
timidity  may  lead  to  deception  through  fear 
of  consequences.  Do  you  think  this  defect 
can  be  successfully  overcome  by  hypnotic 
suggestion  V^ 

My  reply  to  such  an  inquiry  is  that  the 
229 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

child  as  pictured  is  a  perfect  subject  for 
hypnotic  treatment,  which  will  convert  the 
cry-baby  into  a  resolute,  manly  boy,  the  un- 
happy, cringing  coward  into  a  model  of 
bravery  and  truth. 

On  June  9th,  Howard  P.,  aged  ten,  was  sent 
to  my  office  by  his  mother,  who  declared  that, 
in  consequence  of  his  destructive  impulses, 
eternal  restlessness,  flagrant  disobedience,  de- 
fiance of  her  authority,  and  developing  un- 
truthfulness, life  was  not  worth  the  living. 
The  child  was  utterly  incorrigible.  I^either 
parents  nor  teachers  could  prevail  in  the  least 
against  the  massive  tendency  to  wrong-doing. 
Correction  by  precept  and  merciless  castiga- 
tion  had  utterly  failed  to  check  the  vicious 
propensities.  The  boy  was  hypnotized,  and 
a  suggestion  carefully  formulated  to  the 
effect  that  he  was  no  longer  disrespectful,  un- 
truthful, disobedient,  neglectful  of  his  les- 
sons; but  that  he  would  be  affectionate  and 
230 


In  the  Training  of  Children 

attentive  to  his  mother's  requests,  would  win 
her  love,  with  the  regard  of  the  family  and  his 
teacher,  by  a  cheerful  service  and  a  career 
of  wholesome  activity.  A  sudden  change  of 
attitude  was  noticeable.  The  exhibition  of 
kindliness  in  the  home  where  before  there 
had  been  nothing  but  ugliness  and  defiance, 
and  habits  of  thought-concentration  in  school 
instead  of  habits  of  rambling,  was  most  grati- 
fying to  all  interested.  As  hypnotism  in 
such  cases  as  this  is  of  the  nature  of  an  edu- 
cation, it  must  be  persisted  in  for  months 
until  the  desired  trend  is  given  permanently 
to  the  mental  and  moral  energies. 

The  most  unpromising  child  that  has  come 
under  my  observation  is  Freddie  D.,  aged 
twelve  years,  who  was  hysterically  insane 
from  the  abuse  of  cigarettes  when  his  mother 
brought  him  to  me  for  treatment  in  March, 
1900.  This  boy  had  been  smoking  from  thir- 
ty to  fifty  cigarettes  a  day,  with  the  usual 
231 


Hypnotism   in    Culture 

consequences.  I  was  asked  to  educate  out  of 
vice  and  nervous  bankruptcy  a  liar,  an  in- 
corrigible thief,  a  master  of  profanity  and  ob- 
scenity, an  adept  in  the  schoolery  of  the 
streets,  a  colepixy  at  home,  and  designated 
by  his  teacher  as  "  the  biggest  devil  she  had 
ever  seen."  Ten  treatments  were  required 
to  change  this  nature.  The  cigarettes  were 
first  attacked,  and  Freddie  soon  found  it  im- 
possible to  take  a  single  puff  without  paying 
the  suggested  penalty  of  nausea  and  vomiting. 
The  deviltry  coembodied  in  him  entirely 
through  this  habit  was  then  disposed  of 
piecemeal.  His  temper  gradually  improved ; 
and  in  the  course  of  two  months,  he  became 
respectful  of  parental  authority,  kind  to  his 
little  sister,  affectionate  to  his  mother,  dis- 
inclined to  truancy,  and  both  well-behaved 
and  industrious  at  school. 

In  other  instances,  no  difficulty  has  been 
encountered  in  awakening  slumbering  affec- 
232 


In  the  Training  of  Children 

tions,  creating  a  desire  for  knowledge,  in- 
spiring respect  for  parents  and  elders,  and 
even  in  compelling  a  courteous  anticipation 
of  their  wants  and  wishes  on  the  part  of  ap- 
parently thoughtless  and  inattentive  or  un- 
grateful and  reprobate  children.  In  the  case 
of  young  persons  who  possess  ability  but  not 
application,  the  results  of  hypnotic  training 
seem  almost  miraculous. 


HYPNOTIC  SUGGESTION  IN 
THE  INSPIRATION  OF  WRIT- 
ERS, AND  OF  MEN  AND  WOM- 
EN OF  THE  STAGE 


HYNPOTIC  SUGGESTION  IN 
THE  INSPIRATION  OF  WRIT- 
ERS, AND  OF  MEN  AND  WOM- 
EN OF  THE  STAGE 

THE  writer  has  had  under  treatment  dur- 
ing the  spring  a  number  of  persons 
who  sought  increased  powers  of  attention 
and  concentration,  as  well  as  several  ladies 
who  are  making  a  profession  of  fiction  writ- 
ing. To  these  latter  were  imparted  in  hyp- 
nosis, first,  a  knowledge  of  the  canons  of  nar- 
ration, viz.,  the  law  of  selection,  which  limits 
the  story-teller  to  appropriate  characteristic 
or  individual  circumstances;  the  law  of  suc- 
cession, which  governs  the  disposal  of  the 
selected  incidents  in  the  order  of  a  climax; 
and  the  law  of  unity ; — secondly,  of  the  laws 
237 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

of  construction  in  the  case  of  the  novel,  its 
functions  and  technic,  and  its  legitimate 
material. 

This  philosophy  is  readily  grasped,  as- 
similated, and  utilized  in  post  -  hypnotic 
creation;  and  the  mode  of  instruction  puts 
out  of  countenance  the  conventional  wrest- 
ling with  the  precepts  of  a  text-book.  In 
the  light  of  instantaneous  apprehension,  bar- 
renness gives  place  to  richness  of  association, 
the  earnest  thought  and  honest  toil  of  the  old 
method  to  a  surprising  facility,  disinclina- 
tion to  select  details  to  zest  in  appropriating 
whatever  is  available.  Opportunity  and 
mood  are  thus  made  to  coincide,  and  the 
subject  spontaneously  conforms  to  the  eter- 
nal principles  of  style.  Under  the  influence 
of  such  inspiration,  rapid  progress  has  been 
made  in  the  chosen  field  of  authorship. 

To  the  many  who  have  desired  and  secured 
through  hypnotic  treatment  accentuated 
238 


Inspiration    of  Writers,  Etc. 

powers  of  attention,  concentration,  reproduc- 
tive memory,  and  imagination,  the  following 
typical  suggestions  were  given :  You  are  now 
in  a  position  where  you  can  perceive  your 
mental  faculties  in  all  their  strength  and 
beauty,  where  you  can  appreciate  their  har- 
monious adjustment  in  a  mighty  unity.  You 
apprehend  your  power  to  use  them  to  the 
highest  advantage.  Hence  you .  will  retain 
and  assimilate  the  best  of  the  good  you  hear 
and  read,  so  that  you  can  exploit  it  in  con- 
versation and  discussion.  And,  above  all, 
there  will  be  no  embarrassment,  no  admis- 
sion of  inferiority  in  the  presence  of  others, 
for  you  realize  your  mental  equality. 

Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  is  said  to  have 
written  Uncle  Torns  Cahin  in  a  subcon- 
scious state.  It  is  related  that  upon  inquiry 
from  her  publishers  as  to  when  they  might 
expect  a  new  instalment  of  copy,  she  was 
accustomed  to  say,  devoutly,  "  The  Lord  only 
239 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

knows;  wait  till  I  am  inspired."  To  a 
dreamy  non-observant  patient  having  similar 
literary  visions  while  half  asleep,  which  van- 
ish as  she  wakes,  the  suggestion  has  been 
given,  with  marked  results,  that  whatever 
comes  to  her  spontaneously  in  a  state  of 
reverie  is  hers  permanently,  and  will  find 
outlet  in  some  piece  of  literature  of  her  own 
creation. 

Actresses  resort  to  hypnotic  treatment  for 
accessions  of  self-confidence  and  for  inspira- 
tion. The  inspiration  of  an  actress  while 
in  an  hypnotic  condition — the  quickening  of 
her  faith  in  her  powers  of  impersonation, 
the  elimination  of  all  admission  of  inferior- 
ity even  to  the  stars  of  her  profession,  the 
emphasizing  of  her  native  dignity  and  grace, 
the  pushing  of  her  individuality  into  bold 
relief — is  an  easy  feat  to  a  suggestionist  of 
strong  personality  who  understands  the  deli- 
cate machinery  of  the  human  mind  and  th? 
240 


Inspiration    of  Writers,   Etc. 

laws  of  dramatic  art.  The  response  of  the 
woman's  soul  to  such  suggestions  with 
post  -  hypnotic  import  is  followed  by  her 
speedy  ascent  to  the  heights  of  histrionic 
art,  and  by  subsequent  triumphs  on  the  stage 
through  an  apprehension  of  her  own  death- 
less powers  as  revealed  by  the  creative  com- 
munication of  her  hypnotist.  An  actress 
once  so  inspired  is  inspired  forever.  In 
such  cases,  it  is  the  practice  of  the  writer 
to  supplement  the  concluding  suggestions 
with  the  assurance  that  the  good  work  ac- 
complished can  never  be  undone. 

These  latest  triumphs  of  suggestion  must 
refute  many  theories  of  pedagogy  that  are 
taught  in  the  colleges,  and  give  accent  to  the 
philosophy  of  Milton,  which  based  the  con- 
ditions of  success  in  teaching  on  the  person- 
ality rather  than  on  the  method  of  the  in- 
structor. 

Q  241 


HYPNOTIC  SUGGESTION  IN 
THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
VOICE  AND  OF  MUSICAL 
TALENT 


HYPNOTIC  .SUGGESTION  IN 
THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
VOICE  AND  OF  MUSICAL 
TALENT 

IN  cases  of  intelligent  women  who  under- 
stand the  philosophy  of  hypnotism  and 
apply  for  assistance  in  their  musical  work,  the 
suggestions  are  framed  to  meet  the  special 
needs  of  each  individual.  The  subject  is  hyp- 
notized and  told  that  the  subliminal  self  is 
now  in  the  ascendancy ;  that  it  has  demanded 
and  secured  an  outlet  of  expression  through 
the  physical  organism  and  the  mortal  mind; 
that  it  will  utter  itself  fearlessly,  without 
diffidence,  without  thought  of  extraneous 
criticism,  unerringly,  feelingly,  triumphant- 
ly; that  in  order  to  do  this  it  has  indued 
245 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

the  objective  self  with  power  to  read  music, 
to  interpret  the  contents,  and  to  render  the 
thought  of  feeling  through  the  medium  of 
piano  tones  evoked  bj  dexterous  fingers.  An 
improvement  is  at  once  noticed,  marked  by 
facility  in  interpreting  new  and  difficult 
music,  by  a  sureness  and  delicacy  of  touch, 
and,  above  all,  by  the  acquisition  of  perfect 
confidence  before  an  audience.  Proficiency 
in  piano-playing  on  the  part  of  those  who  un- 
derstand the  technic  is  assured  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time  by  suggestive  instruc- 
tion of  this  nature.  The  automatic  mind 
is  gently  wooed  to  the  summits  of  soul  life, 
where  it  becomes  susceptible  to  inspiration 
and  burns  to  launch  itself,  through  music 
as  a  medium  of  artistic  expression,  into  the 
objective  world. 

That  such  results  can  be  reached  by  a  per- 
son who  is  himself  without  musical  ability 
proves  hypnotic  suggestion  to  be  more  than 
246 


Development    of  Voice 

a  mere  imparting  of  knowledge  or  skill 
possessed  by  the  operator.  It  is  a  true  in- 
spiration, an  appeal  to  the  soul  regnant,  a 
kindling  of  its  deepest  and  sweetest  emotions, 
a  materializing  of  its  highest  aspirations,  a 
summoning  into  action  of  its  resistless  do- 
minion. If  this  inspiration  be  effected  on 
psychological  principles  by  a  personality  con- 
genitally  qualified  and  judiciously  trained, 
the  translation  of  latent  into  actual  talent 
will  be  unattended  with  any  danger  of  con- 
verting the  subject  into  a  soulless  automaton. 
The  conscious  perception  of  genius,  and  the 
conscious  appreciation  of  the  worth  of  each 
performance  from  the  stand-point  of  technic, 
will  not  be  taken  from  the  soul  that  is  oper- 
ating on  the  higher  plane  of  apprehension; 
but  the  mesmerizee  will  remain  in  the  post- 
hypnotic state  an  intelligent  interpreter  and 
renderer  of  music. 

A  number  of  singers  have  had  recourse  to 
247 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

hypnotic  treatment  for  vocal  awkwardness 
and  sensitiveness  to  changes  of  weather.  A 
representative  case  is  that  of  Miss  D.,  a  vocal- 
ist who  applied  in  December  for  relief  from 
hoarseness  that  supervened  on  the  slightest 
provocation  and  interfered  with  her  singing, 
a  thickened  condition  of  the  vocal  cords,  and 
a  morbid  expectation  of  failure.  Miss  D. 
was  hypnotized  and  assured  that  atmospheric 
conditions  would  have  no  effect  on  her  vocal 
cords ;  that  she  was  not  watching  for  failure 
because  the  thermometer  rose  or  fell,  or  the 
humidity  in  the  air  varied;  that  her  voice 
would  be  smooth,  clear,  and  velvety  through 
the  whole  register;  that  she  would  trill  and 
shake  with  precision;  and  that  vocal  grace 
had  supplanted  voice-awkwardness.  These 
suggestions  were  repeated  on  two  subsequent 
occasions,  with  the  effect  desired.  It  is  to 
be  noted  that  this  singer  had  a  finely  devel- 
oped chest,  and  that  the  tone-producing  blast 
248 


Development    of  Voice 

determined  a  sufficient  amplitude  of  vibra- 
tion in  the  vocal  cords.  On  January  27th, 
the  patient  stated  that  she  wished  to  sing 
the  "  Stabat  Mater  "  in  church  on  the  follow- 
ing Sunday,  and  desired  the  power  to  render 
the  piece  effectively.  She  was  accordingly 
hypnotized  and  told  that  her  voice  would 
be  responsive  to  the  demands  made  upon  it 
by  her  genius;  that  she  possessed  a  perfect 
laryngeal  instrument  of  voice  expression, 
and  that  on  the  occasion  in  question  she  would 
handle  with  dexterity  the  vocal  cords,  laryn- 
geal cartilages,  and  muscles  involved.  As 
a  result,  she  rendered  the  "  Stabat  Mater  " 
to  her  perfect  satisfaction. 

On  January  31st,  Miss  D.  reported  with 
some  bronchial  trouble.  The  suggestions 
were  to  the  effect  that  the  secretions  of  the 
bronchi,  trachea,  and  larynx  were  subject  to 
the  decree  of  her  subliminal  self,  and  were 

normal — that  the  nerve  filaments  were  in- 
249 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

sensible  to  wind  and  weather,  and  hence  the 
secretions  would  not  dry  and  the  voice  be- 
come husky.  So  with  a  perfect  laryngeal 
instrument  naturally  lubricated  by  healthy 
secretions,  vocal  grace  and  agility  were  as- 
sured. She  was  then  told  to  sleep  for  ten 
minutes,  happy  in  the  apprehension  of  her 
great  endowment  and  in  her  recognition  of 
control  over  all  the  physical  procedures  that 
have  to  do  with  voice  production.  She 
awoke  at  the  designated  time,  cheerful,  buoy- 
ant, and  eager  to  put  into  execution  her  new- 
ly apprehended  powers.  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  they  have  stood  the  test. 


COMPULSORY    HYPNOTISM 


COMPULSORY   HYPNOTISM 

THE  experience  of  the  author  in  the  field 
of  compulsory  hypnotism,  with  patients 
automatically  refractory  or  purposely  defiant, 
has  been  deemed  of  sufficient  interest  to  merit 
notice  in  this  volume.  When  such  a  case  is 
presented,  and  either  objective  acquiescence 
is  implied  or  authority  is  secured  to  hypnotize 
against  the  subject's  will,  it  is  my  practice  to 
call  at  the  residence  or  hotel  at  bedtime,  in- 
ject sufficient  morphia  hypodermaticallyto  in- 
sure the  establishment  of  my  control,  and  then 
ask  him  to  retire.  By  the  time  he  is  en- 
sconced in  bed,  an  agreeable  sensation  has  be- 
gim  to  diffuse  itself  over  his  body,  sometimes 
described  as  a  reluctance  to  move,  sometimes 
as  indefinitely  pleasant,  occasionally  as  a  feel- 
253 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

ing  of  weakness.  There  follows  a  period  of 
heart  stimulation  and  cerebral  excitement, 
the  mind  becoming  superlatively  active.  But 
in  the  course  of  fifteen  minutes  to  a  half- 
hour,  if  the  dose  of  morphia  be  carefully 
gauged,  the  pulse  diminishes  in  frequency, 
respiration  slows  and  shallows,  the  eyes  that 
are  fixed  upon  the  influencing  diamond  begin 
to  close,  and  the  patient  shortly  drops  off  into 
a  singularly  responsive  sleep.  Eesistance, 
planned  or  spontaneous,  is  at  an  end;  and  I 
am  free  deliberately  and  methodically  to  un- 
rubbish  the  soul.  The  fusion  of  indescrib- 
able calm  and  alertness  in  the  mental  condi- 
tion induced  by  hypnotic  influence  super- 
added to  morphia  effects,  implies  the  highest 
degree  of  receptivity  and  hence  of  suggesti- 
bility. ^Hiat  is  said  in  the  interval  between 
somnolence  and  sopor,  with  feeling  and  the 
courage  of  conviction — assuming  that  it  be 
along  the  line  of  mental  and  moral  exalta- 
254 


Compulsory    Hypnotism 

tion — is  unquestioninglj  accepted.  The  soul 
of  the  sleeper  is  fired  with  manly  determina- 
tion; an  abhorrence  of  all  compromising 
thoughts  and  actions  takes  shape;  and  the 
divine  within  the  man  summons  the  objective 
nature  into  successful  revolt  against  all  in- 
clination to  evil-doing. 

The  subject  is  thus  effectively  roused  from 
his  moral  coma,  and  ethical  apathy  is  trans- 
formed into  ethical  energy,  or  capacity  for 
performing  worthy  deeds.  Such  energy  seeks 
immediate  outlet  in  the  activities  of  a  moral 
life.  The  weaknesses  of  the  past  are  for- 
gotten, vice  loses  its  attractions,  and  the  in- 
spired soul  seeks  to  make  reparation  for  its 
shortcomings  by  an  exaggerated  loyalty  to  the 
spirit  of  the  moral  law. 

The  young  man  who  has  regarded  with  con- 
tempt a  father's  advice  and  a  mother's  love 
becomes,  after  treatment,  the  incarnation  of 
filial  reverence  and  affection.  The  liar  looks 
255 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

his  interlocutor  in  the  face  and  speaks  the 
truth  without  regard  to  consequences.  The 
thief  parts  with  all  inclination  to  appropriate 
what  is  not  his.  The  libertine  accepts  the 
white  life.  Human  saprophytes  that  thrive 
on  social  rottenness  are  not  wholly  destitute 
of  moral  chlorophyl.  In  the  worst  of  char- 
acters there  lies  imbedded  virgin  gold  that 
may  be  found  for  the  seeking  and  wrought 
into  exquisite  shapes. 

Among  a  number  of  moral  imbeciles  and 
perverts  subjected  to  this  compulsory  treat- 
ment, I  present  a  single  case  which  repre- 
sents that  type  of  young  man  who  deliberate- 
ly pawns  his  soul  to  the  devil  for  what  he 
feigns  to  regard  as  a  little  pleasure,  and  in- 
vites a  harlot  to  write  the  bill  of  sale — un- 
covenable  in  the  presence  of  virtue — lost  to 
the  pleadings  of  affection,  wine-bibber,  per- 
jurer, gambler,  petty  thief,  recklessly  re- 
solved never  to  hunt  the  clean  shoe  in  his  mad 
256 


Compulsory    Hypnotism     ,,  vo 

chase  through  a  modern  Cockaigne.  Mj  ex- 
periments with  this  unfortunate — ^whose  par- 
ents represent  the  highest  type  of  morality, 
but  whose  own  moral  organs  remained  in  an 
embryonic  state  up  to  the  time  of  his  treat- 
ment— conclusively  prove  that  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion may  undam  the  currents  of  ethico- 
spiritual  impulse  in  such  a  life,  and  flood  it 
with  a  stream  of  moral  energy — not  uncreate, 
but  until  the  hour  of  inspiration  wholly  po- 
tential. 

In  other  words,  a  person  may  be  hypnotized 
against  his  will  and  compelled  to  take  upon 
himself  a  changed  nature  in  response  to  ap- 
propriate suggestions.  The  bad  may  be 
made  good  despite  their  deliberate  determi- 
nation to  continue  in  the  clutches  of  sin. 

An  indispensable  condition  of  permanent 
cure  in  such  a  case  as  I  have  pictured  is  ex- 
emption from  temptation  until  the  moral 
character  is  completely  reconstructed.  Pre- 
R  257 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

mature  contact  with  vice  on  the  part  of  a  mor- 
al convalescent  is  all  but  sure  to  precipitate 
a  dangerous  relapse.  And  herein  lies  the 
difficulty  of  managing  the  moral  imbecile 
while  under  treatment.  Collisions  between 
the  accumulating  force  of  the  suggestions  and 
all  stimulants  of  the  congenital  passion  must 
be  averted  during  the  formative  period  of  a 
contrary  cortex  habit.  The  rule  of  ethical 
tare  and  tret  should  be  liberally  applied  in 
calculating  the  allowances  necessary  to  be 
made  for  the  gross  character-weight  that  rep- 
resents an  evolution  of  the  moral  outfit  at 
birth. 

Obstinate  insomnia  has  in  the  experience 
of  the  author  been  successfully  treated  by  a 
combination  of  the  morphia  and  hypnotic  in- 
fluence, where  neither  by  itself  was  success- 
ful. The  suggestions,  which  were  objective- 
ly inaudible  to  the  patient,  directed  him  to 
rise  from  his  couch,  undress,  retire  to  bed, 
258 


Compulsory    Hypnotism 

and  sleep  until  morning.  These  instruc- 
tions were  literally  obeyed,  and  forced  the 
beginning  of  the  end  in  an  acute  attack  of 
neurasthenia. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  compul- 
sory hypnotization  can  safely  be  effected  only 
by  conscientious  physicians.  The  sciolists  of 
hypno-science  are  excluded  from  this  field  of 
undreamed  -  of  promise.  Familiarity  with 
morphia  effects  and  the  means  of  controlling 
them  when  extreme;  a  caution  that  is  born 
only  of  professional  knowledge;  and  a  real- 
ization that  idiosyncrasy  (individual  suscep- 
tibility or  antipathy)  may  be  encountered 
where  least  expected — are  of  right  demanded 
in  the  operator  by  the  patient  or  his  legal 
guardian. 

Some  subjects  are  uninfluenceable  by  limit 
doses  of  morphia ;  in  others  alarming  symp- 
toms follow  the  administration  of  a  minimum 
dose.  Whereas  a  half-grain  has  in  one  re- 
259 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

corded  instance  proved  fatal  to  an  adult,  and 
a  drop  of  laudanum  has  imperilled  the  life  of 
a  babe,  the  author  had  under  his  care  one 
young  man  whose  daily  allowance  had  been 
sixty  grains  of  morphia  and  a  lady  who  drank 
a  pint  of  laudanum  every  twenty-four  hours. 
As  is  well  kno^vn,  the  habitual  use  of  these 
drugs  lessens  susceptibility  to  their  action. 

It  is  thus  incumbent  on  the  physician-sug- 
gestionist  thoroughly  to  acquaint  himself  with 
any  possible  idiosyncrasy  in  his  subject  be- 
fore resorting  to  compulsory  hypnotism. 

Other  drugs  than  morphia  have  uniform- 
ly proved  unavailing,  in  the  hands  of  the 
author,  for  the  compulsory  induction  of  hyp- 
nosis. Full  doses  of  trional  and  hyoscine 
merely  increase  the  alertness  of  a  mind  which 
is  non-susceptible  to  outputs  of  personality. 
An  unhypnotizable  subject  recently  bicycled 
away  from  my  office  as  unaffected  by  thirty 
grains  of  trional  as  if  it  had  been  flour. 
260 


CONCLUSIONS    REACHED 


CONCLUSIONS    REACHED 

THE  results  obtained  by  the  author  in 
treating  mental  defects  and  moral  obli- 
quity by  suggestion  justify  the  following  con- 
clusions : — 

Hypnotism  in  proper  hands  may  be  ap- 
plied successfully  in  restoring  degenerates 
and  reforming  the  criminal  classes. 

Addiction  to  drugs  and  stimulants,  im- 
moral impulses,  habits  of  lying  and  stealing, 
dangerous  delusions  and  dominant  ideas, 
suicidal  and  homicidal  mania,  erratic  and 
unmanageable  dispositions  in  children,  lack 
of  reverence  for  superiors,  and  general  in- 
corrigibility— are  curable  by  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion. I  have  no  hesitation  in  adding  to  this 
263 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

list  the  passion  for  gambling  in  adults,  and 
the  gambling  mania  so  marked  among  Amer- 
ican school-boys  as  well  as  the  Arabs  of  the 
street. 

Hypnotic  suggestion  is  adapted  to  the 
treatment  of  acute  amnesia  or  loss  of  mem- 
ory, of  melancholia,  monomania,  unballasted 
wits,  and  mild  forms  of  insanity  in  their  ia- 
cipiency,  where  the  attention  of  the  patient 
can  be  fixed  and  his  mind  controlled  so  that 
it  ceases  to  wander  from  image  to  image  and 
from  thought  to  thought — an  indispensable 
condition  of  success  in  all  cases. 

Stammering,  stuttering,  and  similar 
speech  defects,  are  amenable  to  hypnotic 
treatment. 

High  purpose  and  noble  endeavor  may  be 
substituted  in  character  for  carnal  propen- 
sities and  sordid  aims,  worthy  ideals  for 
bestial  standards,  intellectual  brilliance  and 
living  interest  for  obtuseness  and  indiffer- 
264 


Conclusions  Reached 

ence.  Habits  of  thought  concentration  may 
be  made  to  take  the  place  of  habits  of  ram- 
bling, ability  to  use  grammatical  English  for 
uncertainty  in  syntax,  a  taste  that  approves 
elegance  for  an  inclination  to  slang. 

Although  the  author  firmly  believes  that 
the  philanthropic  reformer  should  know  the 
worst  he  has  to  deal  with,  the  frightful  per- 
versions that  have  been  modified  or  removed 
by  hypnotic  suggestion — perversions  imply- 
ing moral  disease  and  as  uncontrollable  by 
child,  youth,  or  adult  as  an  epileptic  attack — 
cannot  be  appropriately  described  in  these 
pages.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  ungovernable 
abuses  have  been  controlled,  that  patients 
have  been  obliqued  from  sexual  manias  which 
no  appeal  to  self-respect,  fear  of  physical  or 
mental  ruin,  conscience,  faith,  or  love,  and 
which  no  use  of  drugs  could  subdue.  !N'ame- 
less  aberrations  have  been  displaced  from 
young  minds;  and  intellectual,  moral,  and 
265 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

spiritual  ideals  substituted  therefor.  Most 
of  the  sexual  perversion  physicians  encounter 
is  the  result  of  immoral  instruction  given  by 
school-fellows.  Hence,  during  the  years  that 
mark  the  change  from  childhood  to  puberty, 
young  people  should  be  watched  with  lynx- 
eyed  solicitude.  Ignorance  or  indifference 
in  teachers  is  unpardonable.  Evil  habits 
acquired  at  school  are  likely  to  become  fixed, 
to  the  permanent  crippling  of  brain  efficiency 
and  the  consequent  interference  with  career. 
In  many  perverts,  the  will  is  stricken  with  im- 
potency,  all  power  of  resistance  is  destroyed, 
and  unless  the  unfortunate  subject  can  obtain 
outside  psychic  aid  through  suggestion  in 
some  form,  he  ultimately  finds  his  way  into 
the  asylum,  the  prison,  or  the  suicide's  grave. 
Children,  as  a  rule,  are  more  impression- 
able than  adults,  and  the  fulfilment  of  sug- 
gestions given  to  them  is  more  pronounced 
and  more  permanent.  Here  the  result  of 
266 


Conclusions  Reached 

suggestion  amounts  practically  to  regenera- 
tion, moral  perversity  not  having  become 
fixed  by  the  indulgence  of  years. 

A  very  important  condition  of  success  is 
the  desire  of  the  subject  to  be  cured,  or  at 
least  his  acquiescence  in  the  treatment.  I 
have  a  private  patient  who  began  by  stimu- 
lating with  liquid  peptonoids  and  ended  with 
whiskey  (not  an  unusual  history,  by  the 
way),  whom  I  endeavored  to  hypnotize 
without  her  knowledge  and  against  her  will 
— a  procedure  I  have  never  attempted  ex- 
cept in  this  one  case,  and  heartily  disapprove 
of.  I  yielded  to  the  mother's  entreaties  and 
the  attending  physician's  policy,  and  made 
the  patient  believe  I  was  applying  tests  to 
her  ocular  muscles.  Her  objective  opposi- 
tion was  broken  down,  and  she  passed  into 
the  first  stage  of  hypnosis — when  suddenly 
it  dawned  upon  her  what  I  was  attempting. 
She  cried  out,  "  I  believe  you  are  trying  to 
267 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

mesmerize  me/'  sat  up,  and  the  spell  was 
broken. 

While  acquiescence  in  the  treatment  is  es- 
sential, will-power  has  nothing  to  do  witli 
hypnotic  suggestion,  neither  the  will-power 
of  the  operator  nor  that  of  the  subject.  Pa- 
ralysis of  the  will,  which  is  the  hete  noire  of 
the  popular  mind,  is  inconceivable.  The 
mesmerizee  is  inspired  or  empowered,  as  the 
case  may  be,  and  works  out  his  own  salvation 
in  his  own  objective  life  without  conscious 
effort  of  any  kind  —  or,  if  the  blacklisted 
thoughts  or  feelings  should  fugitively  recur, 
it  costs  him  no  struggle  to  banish  them. 
Above  all,  he  is  in  no  degree  subject  to  an- 
other will.  His  superior  self  or  personality 
is  put  in  command;  and  he  is  then  normal, 
happy,  energetic,  buoyant,  without  wishing  or 
willing  to  be  so.  He  simply  cannot  help  it. 
And  yet  he  is  conscious  of  an  uplift,  sensible 
of  a  new  control  of  himself,  by  himself,  for 
268 


Conclusions  Reached 

himself — and  glories  in  it.  If  skilfully  dealt 
with,  he  is  not  converted  into  a  mere  automa- 
ton. 

The  thoughts,  feelings,  aspirations,  and 
moral  status  of  the  hypnotist  are  communi- 
cated most  vividly  and  accurately  to  the  sub- 
ject, whose  mind  becomes  mysteriously  tuned 
in  unison  with  that  of  the  operator.  And 
herein  lies  the  true  danger  of  hypnotism — 
the  injury  potential  to  the  mesmerizee.  I 
have  been  startled  by  hearing  patients 
tell  me  days  after  hypnotization  of  feelings 
and  incentives  to  action  of  which  I  had  said 
nothing,  but  which  I  knew  to  be  in  the  back- 
ground of  my  consciousness  at  the  time  of 
treatment.  An  actress  whom  I  was  inspir- 
ing with  confidence  and  preparing  for  her 
part,  assured  me  on  one  occasion  that  she 
had  experienced  a  remarkable  change  in  hci- 
disposition  and  her  attitude  as  regards  the 
purity  of  the  stage.  She  could  not  think 
269 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

of  engaging  to  a  manager  whose  plays  were 
not  above  suspicion,  and  her  newly  adopted 
ideals  were  so  exactly  in  conformity  with  my 
own  that  there  could  be  no  question  regard- 
ing their  source.  The  danger  of  exposure  to 
moral  soiling  on  the  part  of  a  sensitive  wom- 
an in  the  hands  of  a  coarse  and  unprincipled 
hypnotist  needs  no  paragraph  of  warning. 
Of  a  young  man  whom  I  was  treating  for 
moral  defect,  and  to  whom  I  had  said  nothing 
objectively  or  subjectively  of  my  ardent  love 
for  nature  and  her  wild  life,  his  mother 
writes :  "  P.  has  never  been  a  lover  of  nature, 
but  now  he  is  deeply  interested  in  trees,  birds, 
flowers,  etc.  This  to  me  is  simply  wonder- 
ful, as  it  proves  how  sensitive  he  is  becoming 
to  your  influence,  and  that  your  thoughts  are 
in  a  degree  his  thoughts."  The  time  has  in- 
deed come,  as  Maeterlinck  predicted  it  would, 
when  souls  may  know  of  each  other  without 
the  intermediary  of  the  senses. 
270 


Conclusions   Reached 

Anotlier  essential  is  robust  health,  cheerful 
spirits,  and  freedom  from  agitation  on  the 
part  of  the  operator.  Anxious  surmises, 
disturbing  suspicions,  preoccupation,  the  re- 
ception of  unpleasant  letters,  seriously  inter- 
fere with  hypnotic  influence.  The  most 
favorable  mood  has  been  described  as  a 
"  wise  passiveness.'^  Undivided  attention 
must  be  given  to  the  work,  especially  at  the 
first  seance.  After  that,  less  force  is,  as  a 
rule,  required.  Hypnotic  power  remits  with 
remission  of  attention.  Patients  are  con- 
scious of  relaxation  and  reconcentration  in 
an  exhausted  operator.  One  lady  described 
my  influence  as  having  a  perceptible  "  ebb 
and  flow."  The  hypnotic  force  of  an  in- 
dividual is  strengthened  by  regular  exer- 
cise and  weakened  by  excessive  application. 
The  treatment  in  one  day  of  more  than 
three  or  four  such  cases  as  have  been  de- 
scribed in  the  foregoing  chapters  is  un- 
271 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

fair  both  to  the  suggestionist  and  to  his  pa- 
tients. 

Studied  gentleness  tempered  with  firmness 
is  a  sine  qua  non.  Shouting,  coarse-voiced, 
unsympathetic  hypnotists  have  their  labor 
for  their  pains.  All  harshness,  severity, 
or  brutality,  either  on  the  part  of  the  opera- 
tor, or  of  friends  and  relatives  before  or  after 
the  hypnotizing,  interferes  with  success. 
The  treatment  must  be  of  the  suaviter  in 
modo  fortiter  in  re  nature — persuasive  rather 
than  peremptory,  constructive  as  well  as  de- 
structive. And  in  proportion  as  the  sugges- 
tions are  concrete  and  incisive,  the  effect 
sought  will  be  secured.  Under  certain  cir- 
cumstances persons  can  be  brought  forcibly 
into  rapport — a  refractory  child  by  an  intro- 
ductory reprimand,  or,  if  need  be,  thrashing ; 
a  hardened  criminal,  objectively  antagonistic, 
by  a  staggering  hypodermic  of  morphia. 
Hypnotism  might  play  a  great  part  in  the 
272 


Conclusions  Reached 

tracing  of  crime,  ^o  man  should  be  con- 
victed on  confession  wrung  from  him  under 
hypnotic  influence ;  but  if  he  could  be  forced 
to  confess  facts  that  would  serve  as  clews  and 
make  possible  the  absolute  proving  of  guilt, 
the  practice  would  be  valuable.  Any  man 
thus  incriminating  himself  should  have  the 
benefit  of  state's  evidence,  on  the  theory  of  a 
duplex  personality. 

Too  much  should  not  be  attempted  at  one 
treatment.  Better  results  are  obtained  by 
confining  the  suggestions  to  a  single  main 
thought.  Success  usually  attends  not  more 
than  one  of  every  two  or  three  cardinal  sug- 
gestions simultaneously  made.  Hence  if  a 
cluster  of  delusions  holds  sway  in  the  objec- 
tive consciousness,  we  should  deal  with  one 
at  a  time,  beginning  with  the  most  dangerous 
and  disposing  of  that  at  once.  Suicidal 
thoughts,  for  instance,  demand  immediate 
and  exclusive  attention, 
s  273 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

Nervous  instability  or  exhaustion,  stimu- 
lation with  alcohol,  mental  preoccupation,  a 
determination  to  give  one's  self  up,  curiosity 
as  to  what  the  operator  is  doing,  watchfulness 
of  procedures,  self-analysis,  and  in  most 
cases  the  presence  of  inquisitive  or  sympa- 
thetic on  -  lookers,  are  hindrances  to  hypno- 
tization.  The  general  idea  that  it  is  going  to 
succeed  is  favorable  to  the  induction  of  the 
state. 

Hypnosis  may  be  absolute,  the  suggestions 
may  be  selected  with  the  greatest  judgment 
and  made  with  persuasive  emphasis,  the  pa- 
tient may  be  controllable  during  the  sleep, 
and  yet  post-hypnotic  fulfilment  may  be 
actually  nil.  I  have  treated  such  a  case. 
It  was  one  of  extreme  neurasthenic  insanity ; 
and  I  reached  the  conclusion,  after  many 
days  of  study,  that  there  was  not  sufficient 
lecithin  in  the  brain  cells  to  retain  an  im- 
pression for  any  length  of  time,  but  that 
274 


Conclusions  Reached 

there  was  just  enough  to  be  directly  im- 
pressed by  my  personal  presence.  Hence  I 
fed  the  cells  with  phospho-glycerate  of  lime, 
in  order  to  increase  the  receptivity  and  tho 
retentiveness  of  the  mind  that  was  operating 
through  starved  and  inadequate  organs.  Six 
months  after  the  treatment  the  patient  was 
restored  to  perfect  brain  health  and  happi- 
ness. As  the  brain  cells  become  filled  with 
the  natural  phosphorus  -  bearing  substance, 
the  suggestions  given  weeks  before  began  to 
take  effect,  and  all  delusions  vanished.  This 
result  again  suggests  that  the  automatic 
mind  once  inspired  is  forever  inspired. 

Frequent  repetition  of  the  hypnotic  pro- 
cedure increases  the  susceptibility  of  the  sub- 
ject. Whereas  hypnotization  often  repeated 
as  a  strengthening  and  educating  influence, 
with  a  view  to  inducing  a  healthy  mental  habit, 
is  absolutely  innocuous,  the  continual  use  of  a 
hypnotized  person  for  exhibition  or  other  uii- 
275 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

worthy  and  useless  purposes  may  eventually 
lead  to  physical  exhaustion,  weakening  of  the 
mental  powers,  hysteria,  and  even  insanity. 
Hence  the  wisdom  of  restricting  hypnotic 
treatment  to  those  who  thoroughly  under- 
stand its  dangers  and  are  possessed  of  suffi- 
cient principle  to  use  it  conscientiously. 

In  the  hands  of  such  persons,  suggestion. 
may  be  made  a  most  valuable  accessory  to 
objective  ethical  training  in  the  reforma- 
tories of  the  world.  If  the  authorities  in 
charge  of  institutions  where  the  friendless 
young  are  cared  for  would  encourage  the 
practice  of  hypnotic  suggestion,  on  the  high 
plane  projected  in  this  volume,  as  a  part  of 
the  moral  curriculum,  there  is  no  question 
that,  in  a  few  generations,  through  the  trans- 
mission of  automatic  impulses  to  right-doing, 
crime  would  be  perceptibly  lessened.  Es- 
pecially are  philanthropic  women,  who  serve 
upon  the  boards  of  managers  of  homes  and 
276 


Conclusions  Reached 

asylums  for  the  protection  of  wayward  girls 
and  the  reclamation  of  outcasts,  urged  to 
consider  this  instrumentality  in  connection 
with  the  noble  work  for  humanity  they  might 
do  if  they  thoroughly  understood  and  judi- 
ciously applied  the  science  of  suggestion. 
The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  unmistakably 
proclaims  it  right  to  exploit  a  legitimate  psy- 
chological means  for  effecting  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  vicious  and  criminal  classes. 
Eight  to  place  the  automatic  mind  in  control 
of  any  passion  that  is  burning  up  body  and 
soul.  Right  to  suggest  pure  thoughts  and 
wholesome  aspirations  to  the  subliminal  per- 
sonality of  a  fallen  woman  in  hope  to  make 
her  clean.  Right  to  exhibit  to  her,  as  a  som- 
nambule,  the  serene  beauty  of  a  holy  life. 
Right  to  admit  her  through  the  portals  of 
hypnosis  to  appreciative  communion  with 
those  women  whose  spirits  walk  abreast  of 
angels. 

277 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

Finally,  the  value  of  hypnotic  suggestion 
from  the  educational  stand-point  cannot  be 
overestimated,  j^ot  only  may  dull  minds  be 
polished,  unbalanced  minds  adjusted,  gifted 
minds  empowered  to  develop  their  talents, 
but  the  educating  mind  of  the  school-child 
may  tread  that  royal  road  to  learning  which 
ancient  philosophers  sought  for  in  vain;  the 
matured  mind  of  the  scholar  may  be  clothed 
with  perceptive  faculty,  with  keenest  insight, 
tireless  capacity  for  application,  unerring 
taste;  and  the  imaginative  mind  of  painter, 
poet,  musician,  discoverer,  may  be  crowned 
with  creative  efficiency  in  the  line  of  ideals 
that  are  high  and  true.  The  lesson  of  hyp- 
notism here  is  a  lesson  of  man's  susceptibility 
to  limitless  progression.  Judicious  sugges- 
tion secures  the  output  of  faculties  inherent 
in  his  nature;  and  the  state  of  hypnosis 
would  seem  to  prove  that  we  have  within  us 
an  immaterial  principle  entirely  indepen- 
278 


.  Conclusions  Reached 

dent  of  sense  organs  and  sense  acquisitions. 
Its  pinion  is  not  reconciled  to  earth.  It  rep- 
resents a  flight  above  the  temporal,  and  hints 
of  heaven. 


LIMITATIONS     OF     HYP- 
NOTISM 


LIMITATIONS     OF     HYP- 
NOTISM 

HYP:N'0TISM,  like  every  other  agent  for 
good,   has  its  abuses  and  its  limita- 
tions. 

Inasmuch  as  hypnotic  suggestion,  broadly 
viewed  as  in  this  volume,  is  many  times  as 
efficient  an  agency  as  objective  religious  ex- 
hortation for  elevating  character,  or  as  any 
conceivable  combination  of  passion  and  al- 
lurement for  depraving  it,  society  should  be 
adequately  guarded  against  its  practice  by 
irresponsible  or  unprincipled  persons.  It 
should  be  looked  upon  seriously,  if  not  with 
reverence;  and  repressive  legislation  is  de- 
manded in  the  United  States  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  public  from  the  loathsome  hyp- 
283 


Hypnotism  in   Culture 

notic  displays  of  dime  museums,  from  the 
disgusting  parlor  exhibitions  so  degrading  to 
American  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  so 
destructive  of  the  subject's  intellectual  equi- 
librium, and  from  unprincipled  hypnotists 
who  exercise  their  powers  to  gain  their  own 
selfish  ends  or  to  deprave  their  fellow-men. 
In  view  of  such  abuses,  the  use  of  hypnotism 
should  be  restricted  by  law,  under  the  penalty 
of  heavy  fine  and  protracted  imprisonment, 
in  its  employment  for  the  cure  of  physical  or 
mental  disease,  to  reputable  physicians;  in 
its  employment  for  the  removal  of  moral 
taints  and  tendencies  to  crime,  to  intelligent, 
high-minded,  properly  qualified  philanthro- 
pists. For  the  results  obtained  by  suggestion 
will  always  be  in  harmony  with  the  ideals  of 
the  suggestionist.  If  the  ethical  ideals  of 
the  operator  are  low,  attempt  at  the  reform 
of  the  subject  must  prove  futile ;  if  high,  the 
moral  pervert  may  be  raised  to  their  plane. 
284 


Limitations  of  Hypnotism 

Especially  should  be  suppressed  the  circu- 
lation, by  charlatans,  of  literature  on  hypno- 
tism, advertising  instruction  in  methods  of 
inducing  this  abnormal  mental  state,  teach- 
ing "  the  art  of  fascination "  for  money, 
promising  to  empower  business  men  to  se- 
cure patronage  by  hypnotizing  prospective 
customers,  and  adventurers  to  win  similarly 
the  affection  of  heiresses,  and  illustrated  by 
shameless  pictures  of  hypnotic  sharps  in  full 
dress  "  influencing ''  fashionably  attired 
women  amid  the  surroundings  of  sumptuous 
boudoirs.  I  have  been  called  upon  to  dis- 
abuse a  number  of  persons  of  the  delusion 
that  society  is  at  their  mercy  if  they  can  but 
master  the  mesmeric  art.  Hypnotic  power 
is,  like  that  of  the  poet,  born,  not  made. 
High-principled  hypnotism  cannot  be  learned 
and  cannot  be  taught.  It  is  like  the  gift  of 
teaching  itself,  which,  as  has  been  noted, 
John  Milton  long  ago  proved  to  be  more  in- 
285 


Hypnotigm  in    Culture 

timately  associated  with  the  personality  of 
the  teacher  than  with  the  method  of  instruc- 
tion. Machine  teachers  may  be  turned  out 
by  professors  of  education;  born  good  teach- 
ers are  only  ruined  by  them.  So,  safe  hypno- 
tists cannot  be  manufactured  to  order.  The 
success  of  hypnotic  effort  depends  upon  the 
ability  to  produce  rapport;  and  only  a  few 
human  beings  are  so  constituted  as  to  be  in 
rapport  with  the  majority  of  their  race. 
Their  sympathy  must  be  genuine  and  thor- 
oughly disinterested;  they  must  be  persons 
of  the  deepest  feelings ;  they  must  be  touched 
by  that  in  life  which  is  more  precious  than 
social  ease,  worldly  distinction,  business  suc- 
cess ;  they  must  be  impressible  by  the  deeper 
springs  of  good  in  himian  nature ;  they  must 
have  insight  into  the  darkest  passions  that 
convulse  humanity ;  and,  above  all,  they  must 
ardently  desire  to  elevate  and  purify  the  souls 
in  their  keeping.  Like  the  lapidary  of  pen- 
286 


Limitations  of  Hypnotism 

etrating  sight,   they  must   "  know  the  gem 
whate'er  the  setting." 

On  the  principle  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  specific  for  any  disease,  hypnotism 
is  not  universally  adapted,  is  not  a  panacea 
or  cure  -  all.  Every  scientific  physician 
knows  that  routinism  is  the  bane  of  thera- 
peutics, that  all  cases  of  disease  must  be  treat- 
ed individually,  according  to  their  special 
requirements.  To  prescribe  a  uniform  dose 
of  any  preparation  for  mankind  at  large  -is 
to  ignore  the  fact  that  all  animals  present 
in  their  physiological  functions  variations 
on  the  same  type;  and  while  the  same  drug 
would  produce  the  same  class  of  action  in  any 
two  human  beings  if  adjusted  to  individual 
peculiarities,  in  many  cases  an  excessive,  in 
others  a  deficient  or  negative,  result  would 
follow.  Besides  this,  the  medicine  itself 
may  be  improper;  and  the  taking  of  an  un- 
suitable remedy  may  effect  no  inconsiderable 
287 


Hypnotism  in  Culture 

amount  of  constitutional  injury.  The  man, 
therefore,  who  claims  to  have  a  specific — that 
is,  a  drug  which  will  invariably  cure  con- 
sumption, cancer,  dyspepsia,  etc.,  is  an  un- 
scrupulous falsifier. 

As  early  as  1604,  King  James  I.  empha- 
sized this  philosophy  in  "A  Counter-Blaste  to 
Tobacco  " ;  "  And  what  greater  absurdities 
can  there  bee,  than  to  say  that  one  cure  shall 
serve  for  divers,  nay  contrarious  sortes  of 
diseases  ?"  ISTowhere  does  the  principle  of 
special  adaptation  apply  with  greater  force 
than  in  the  selection  of  suggestibility  as  an 
appropriate  therapeutic  means. 

In  conclusion,  those  who  use  hypnotic  sug- 
gestion should  be  educated  in  the  natural  his- 
tory of  the  diseases  they  are  treating,  should 
know  what  to  expect  after  the  febrile  symp- 
toms of  typhoid  subside  and  diphtheritic 
membrane  clears  off  the  tonsils.  They 
should  be  incapable  of  suggesting  to  patients 
288 


Limitations   of  Hypnotism 

in  such  critical  conditions  the  possibility  of 
getting  lip  and  going  about,  ignorantly  tak- 
ing the  risk  of  their  falling  moribund  from 
perforation  or  dead  from  cardiac  paralysis. 
Therefore,  in  the  interest  of  humanity, 
should  the  whole  spawn  of  charlatans,  im- 
postors, Christian  Science  and  Faith  healers 
that  infest  our  country,  be  deprived  of  the 
right  to  juggle  at  pleasure  with  human  life 
and  human  character,  and  be  buried  out  of 
sight  in  the  bottomless  bogs  of  their  own 
ignorance,  superstition,  and  pantheism." 

*  The  follo'vving  act,  to  prohibit  public  or  private 
exhibitions  of  hypnotism,  otherwise  known  as  mes- 
merism or  Braidism,  including  catalepsy,  is  now  un- 
der consideration  by  the  Xew  York  State  Medical  So- 
ciety:— 

The  people  of  the  State  of  Xew  York,  represented 
in  Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows: 

Section  1. — Any  person  who  gives  public  or  private 
performances,  or  in  any  way  whatever  practises  upon 
or  causes  any  person  to  enter  into  any  hypnotic  or 
cataleptic  state  or  condition,  with  or  without  the  lat- 
ter's  consent,  is  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor.  This  sec- 
tion shall  not  be  extended  to  apply  to  duly  author- 

T  280 


Hypnotism   in   Culture 

The  duplex  personality  is  a  conception  of 
God.  The  instrumentality  of  suggestion  is 
but  a  bit  of  science  revealed  by  God.  The 
machinery  for  garnering  souls  is  perfected, 
and  the  fields  are  white  unto  the  harvest. 
Who  shall  the  reapers  be  ?  Shall  they  be  the 
inconsiderate,  the  ignorant,  the  sordid,  the 
sensual,  the  malevolent,  who  trample  the 
wheat  beneath  the  heels  of  their  selfishness 
or  scatter  it  to  the  whirlwind  of  their  pas- 
sions? Who  thresh  for  day's  pay,  leaving 
the  precious  grains  of  character  to  mildew 
in  the  straw?  Or  shall  they  be  persons  of 
trustworthy  judgment,  of  unassailable  prin- 
ciple, of  broad  education  and  wide  philan- 

ized  physicians  and  surf^^eons  engaging  in  hypnotism 
at  the  bedside  or  in  a  duly  incorporated  institution 
for  the  relief  of  pain,  the  cure  of  disease,  or  for  ex- 
perimental or  scientific  purposes;  provided  that  the 
person  to  be  operated  upon  be  over  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years,  or  if  under  that  age,  that  the  consent  of 
his  parent,  guardian,  or  other  person  having  legal 
custody  of  him,  be  first  obtained. 
290 


Limitations    of  Hypnotism 

thropy,  sincerely  loving  their  neighbors  as 
themselves,  and  fully  realizing  their  responsi- 
bility to  the  Almighty  for  the  souls  He  has 
called  them  to  exalt  ?  Who  shall  the  reapers 
be? 


THE  EXD 


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